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THE WEST INDIES: 



THE 



NATURAL AND PHYSICAL HISTORY 



WINDWARD AND LEEWARD COLONIES ; 

WITH SOME ACCOUNT OP 

THE MORAL, SOCIAL, AND POLITICAL CONDITION 

OF THEIR INHABITANTS, IMMEDIATELY 

BEFORE AND AFTER 

THE ABOLITION OF NEGRO SLAVERY. 



SIR ANDREW HALLIDAY, K.H., M.D.. ] 

DEPUTY INSPECTOR GENERAL OF ARMY HOSPITALS ; 

FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF GOTTINGEN ; 

FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF EDINBURGH ; LICENTIATE OF THE 

ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF LONDON; 

HONORARY MEMBER OF THE MEDICAL AND PHYSICAL SOCIETIES OF EDINBURGH AND OF THE 

HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND ; 

8fc. fyc. Sfc. 



LONDON: 
JOHN WILLIAM PARKER, WEST STRAND. 

M.DCCC.XXXVII. 



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TO 

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL 

SIR HERBERT TAYLOR, G.C.B., G.C.H. 

fyc. tyc. <fyc. 
THIS VOLUME 

IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, 

BY 
HIS GRATEFUL AND ATTACHED FRIEND, 

THE AUTHOR. 



/4T* 



Hampton Court, 17th March, 1837. 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter I. 



Page 



Voyage Out. — My Reasons for going to the West Indies. — The 
Packet-ship Pandora. — Her First Voyage and many good 
Qualities. — Arrival at Barbados in twenty-five Days . . 1 

Chapter II. 

Barbados. — Advice gratis to those who intend to visit the West 
Indies. — First Impressions of the Country and People. — 
Description of the Island. — External Appearances. — Its 
component parts. — Discovery and first Colony. — Scotland, 
its Scenery, Mineral Wells, &c. — Burning Fountain. — Cur- 
rents of the Ocean. — Remarkable Fact connected with the 
Burning of the Kent East Indiaman. — Voyage of a Bottle. 
— Hurricanes, their Limits. — Frequency in certain Lati- 
tudes. — The most remarkable in Barbados mentioned . 8 

Chapter III. 

The Hurricane op 1831. — A full Account of all the Phenomena 
previous to, and during the continuance of, this awful Visi- 
tation. — Anecdotes of Persons miraculously preserved, and 
of the force of the Wind. — Attempt to account for the 
Cause of these awful Visitations. — Regularity of the Under- 
current of Air, or Trade-Winds, blowing from East to West. 
— Proofs that an Upper-current blows from West to East. 
— Account of the Volcano of St. Vincent's, in 1812. — Alarm 
ereated in Barbados. — The effects in St. Vincent's . . 32 

Chapter IV. 

Colonization. — Taken possession of by Settlers from England, 
in consequence of the Account of it brought home by a 
Dutch Captain. — Hay, Earl of Carlisle, made King of the 
West Indies. — Respectability of first Settlers. — The honour- 
able Conduct of their distinguished Descendants contrasted 
with Men in other Colonies. — Early Opinions respecting the 
African Slaves. — Free Tenants. — Their Character . . 52 



VI CONTENTS. 

I Page 

Chapter V. 

Natural History of Barbados. — Not very abundant in 
Minerals. — Shells found in the Chalk Beds not petrified. — 
Great variety of Shells found on the Shore. — Flying-Fish 
common here. — Barracuta, a dangerous Fish. — Crabs abun- 
dant. — Dr. Maycock, Author of the Flora Barbadensis. — 
Birds and Lizards .,.,.... 60 

Chapter VI. 

Diseases in Barbados. — The Barbados Leg. — Tetanus epide- 
mic. — Intermittent and Remittent Fevers not contagious. — 
Soon generate a Contagious Fever. — Numbers of Sick and 
of Deaths in our Military Hospitals. — Bad Effects of a Salt- 
Meat Diet. — Importance as to Health of frequently changing 
Regiments in the Colonies 69 

Chapter VI*. 

Religion. — Great Exertion made at a very early period to 
convert the Negroes. — Opposition of the Planters. — Present 
improved condition of the Colonies as regards Religious In- 
struction. — Bishop of Barbados, his Zeal and Success in 
propagating the Gospel. — Excellent conduct of the Clergy. 
— Dr. Coleridge's conduct above all Praise . . .76 

Chapter VII. 

British Guiana. — Departure from Barbados. — Arrival at 
Georgetown. — Extent and Importance of the Colony of 
British Guiana ......... 95 

Chapter VIII. 

History of the Colony. — Berbice the first Settlement. — Then 
Essequibo and Demerara. — Consolidation of the three Colo- 



nies in British Guiana. — This Colony fortunate in its Go- 
vernors 



100 



Chapter IX. 

The present State of British Guiana. — The Dutch People 
severe Task-masters. — Condition of the first British Colonists 
influenced their Character. — Prejudices of the Planters. — 
Their Opposition to the Measures of Government. — Present 
Improved Condition of all Parties. — Great Increase of Pro- 
duce from Free Labour 110 

* Incorrectly printed VI. for VII. 



CONTENTS. Vll 

Tage 
Chapter X. 

Civil Constitution, Courts of Justice, &c. — Union of the Co- 
lonies during the present Reign. — Sir B. D'Urban, first Go- 
vernor-General. — Dutch Laws and Dutch Forms still pre- 
vail. — Civil Government. — Court of Policy. — How formed. — 
Combined Court. — High Courts of Civil and Criminal Jus- 
tice. — Inferior Courts 132 

Chapter XI. 
Religion, and the Church Establishment. — Colony remained 
long without a Church. — St. George's first built. — St. An- 
drew's next. — Colony divided into Parishes. — Inadequacy of 
the present Establishment. — Respectability and Usefulness 
of the Missionaries. — Exertions of the Planters. — Great Bri- 
tain urgently called upon to assist in the Good Cause . 144 

Chapter XII. 
Commerce and Finance. — Want of Labourers still felt. — Mission 
to Cuba. — Its failure. — Advantages of the Port of Demerara. 
— Returns, showing the extent of Commerce. — Increase of 
Labourers. — Importance of the Timber Trade. — Financial 
arrangements, and amount of Currency . . . .170 

Chapter XIII. 
Natural History. — Nature of the Soil in British Guiana. — 1 
Extent and Depth. — Accumulation of Trees under George- 
town. — Richness of Vegetation. — Dr. M'Turk, and Major 
Staples, Benefactors of the Community. — Artesian Wells, 
and Lamaha Canal, — Variety of Animals, Birds, and Rep- 
tiles. — Habits and Instincts of Birds and Insects. — Fishes 203 

Chapter XV. 
Medical Statistics — Climate — Diseases — Colony now Healthy. 
— Climate regular. — Chief Causes of Sickness and Mortality 
amongst British Troops. — Barracks and Food. — Drs. Jack- 
son and Fergusson's valuable Reports. — Little Attention 
paid to Medical Opinions by Military Commanders. — Fatal 
Consequences ......... 245 

Chapter XVI. 
Tobago. — Departure from Demerara. — Arrival at Tobago. — 
Scarborough Bay. — History of the Colony. — Unhealthiness 
of Fort King George. — Causes of its being so. — Improve- 
ment recommended, — Extent and Commerce. — Appearance 
and Formation of the Island. — Its History . . . 267 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

Page 

Chapter XVII. 

Tobago. — Formation of the Island considered. — General View 
of the Volcanic Origin of the Islands in the Carribean Sea. — 
Probable Order of their Appearance. — Facts in support of 
the proposed Theory 275 

Chapter XVIII. 
Trinidad. — Passage to Trinidad. — Scenery of the Bocas. — Port 
of Spain. — Discovery and History of the Island. — Sir Walter 
Raleigh visits the Island, and plunders the Spanish Colony. 
— Present Population of the Island. — Its Value as a Colony. 
— French Language generally spoken. — Courts of Justice still 
regulated by the Laws of Spain 286 

Chapter XIX. 
Trinidad. — Colonization. — Commerce, Origin, and Increase of 
the Port of Spain. — Character of Sir Ralph Woodford. — 
Prosperity of the Colony. — Revenue of the Capital. — Mar- 
kets. — Produce of each District. — Imports, Exports, and 
Shipping 296 

Chapter XX. 
Trinidad. — Civil Government and Courts of Law, and Military 
Establishment. — State of Religion and Churches. — Black 
Colony at Manzanilla. — General Remarks . . .313 

Chapter XXI. 
Trinidad. — Formation and Natural History of the Island. — Re- 
markable Phenomena. — Pitch Lake. — Mud Volcanoes. — 
Animal and Vegetable Productions. — Ants, their Habits 
and Economy 328 

Chapter XXII. 
Climate and Diseases. — Trinidad unhealthy. — Causes of Fever. 
— Locality of Barracks bad. — Atmospheric Phenomena. — 
Earthquakes 356 

Appendix . . . 380 



Map of the supposed Course of the Volcanic 

Current To face Title Page. 

Geological Map of Barbados 24 

Position and supposed Extent of British Guiana . . .96 



THE WEST INDIES, 



CHAPTER I. 
VOYAGE OUT. 

MY REASONS FOR GOING TO THE WEST INDIES — THE PACKET- 
SHIP PANDORA — HER FIRST VOYAGE AND MANY GOOD 
QUALITIES — ARRIVAL AT BARBADOS IN TWENTY-FIVE 
DAYS. 

Some men travel for their amusement, — others to 
acquire knowledge, and not a few in search of health ; 
I was unfortunately of the latter class. That most 
severe of all human ailments, gout, had made such 
inroads upon a constitution, otherwise sound, and had 
so enfeebled a frame, originally strong, that before I 
was fifty years of age I could with difficulty walk a 
hundred yards, and was seldom free from pain and 
suffering for a week together. The usual remedies 
had failed to produce any permanent relief, and as a 
last chance it was recommended that I should try the 
effects of a warm climate. 

When the opinion of friends so entirely coincides 
with one's own wishes, as this did with mine, it is 



Z VOYAGE OUT. 

pretty certain their advice will be followed. I there- 
fore was not long in soliciting to be placed on the full 
pay of my commission as a Deputy Inspector General 
of Army Hospitals, being well aware that wherever 
an officer of my rank might be required, it would be 
in a more southern latitude than that of England. 
My request, after a reasonable time, was granted. 
I expected to have been sent to the Mediterranean, 
where the vacancy had occurred that admitted of my 
being employed, but in this was disappointed ; an 
officer was removed from Barbados to Corfu, and I 
was ordered to the West Indies. I cannot say that I 
felt it as any very great disappointment. My principal 
objects in going upon service were active employment 
and to get to a warm climate, and I believed Bar- 
bados under all circumstances was just as healthy 
as Corfu. At any rate, the West Indies at that 
critical period, and when so great a change in the 
relative condition of their inhabitants was about to 
take place, presented a wider field for study, and a 
greater range for original observation, than could 
possibly be found in the isles of the Mediterranean, 
and more especially for such studies as through life 
had been my chiefest delight ; consequently I pro- 
ceeded according to orders, and embarked at Falmouth 
on the morning of the 9th of November, 1833. 

The packet appointed to carry out the West India 



VOYAGE OUT. 






mail on this occasion, was the newly-finished brigan- 
tine, Pandora. This was to be her first voyage, and 
as she was the first of her class built by Captain Sy- 
monds, upon his much-disputed plans and principles, 
and was intended to put these principles fairly to the 
test of experience, there was even some interest at- 
tached to the going out in such a vessel. It was very 
evident, from the moment we got on board, that the 
commander and his officers considered themselves as 
intrusted with more than the usual routine of their 
nautical duties, and had higher objects in view than 
the mere safe navigation of a packet-ship, and they 
proved themselves well qualified for the duties re- 
quired of them. Of the ship's best trim they were as 
yet perfectly ignorant, and when a sail was set it was 
more to ascertain its effects than to prove its necessity. 
But as every league we proceeded on our way was to 
afford us some valuable information as to the good or 
bad qualities, as a sea-boat, of this beautiful little 
vessel, we started with that kind of excitement which is 
often the chief ingredient in the ordinary composition 
of human happiness. 

On leaving Falmouth harbour the wind was con- 
trary, but moderate ; and as it soon became more 
southerly, we were enabled to pass the Scilly Islands 
during the night, and to make a good west course. The 
Pandora was found to steer well upon a wind, and as 

b 2 



VOYAGE OUT. 



we experienced " a little bit of a gale," when near the 
longitude of Cape Clear, we had an early opportunity 
of proving various others of her many good points. 
Every minute particular, even to the setting of a sail 
or the pulling of a rope, was carefully recorded in the 
log ; but all that I can find in my note-book, as claim- 
ing especial notice, is, the horrible creaking noise 
made by the beams and timbers, which, for the first 
week, most effectually banished sleep. 

We were able to steer west and by south till the 
15th of November, when the wind veered round right 
a-head, and made it necessary to stand on the other 
tack, a course about east and by south. We kept on 
this tack during the whole of the 16th, but on the 
morning of the 17th we again stood to the westward. 
It blew pretty fresh all this forenoon, but as the Pan- 
dora lay well up, we made a tolerable course. 

To our great joy, however, about noon on the ljth, 
the wind became right fair, and blew a steady breeze, 
and our good ship's head was turned direct for Bar- 
bados. On the 20th at noon we were in latitude 
37° 30' north, and longitude 20° west, with a fair wind 
and a following sea. 

Our whole time was now spent in experimenting — 
in altering, newly arranging, and in trimming of the 
sails, high and low, before and abaft, and on both 
sides, so as to increase the speed or steady the motions 



VOYAGE OUT. 



of the lively Pandora ; and certainly she did " walk 
the waters like a thing of life," and her speed may 
have been equalled, but was never surpassed, by any 
vessel under canvass. 

If we discovered the mast-heads of a ship at sun- 
rise, we had seen her hull down by noon, and such was 
the "arrow-like" swiftness with which we passed some 
of the craft we fell in with, that, as I heard afterwards, 
the crews of these vessels began to suspect that " the 
flying Dutchman" had been blown from his usual 
latitudes, and was now cruizing in the Atlantic 
Ocean. 

We made twenty-four degrees of latitude (or four- 
teen hundred and forty miles), and forty degrees of 
longitude (nearly two thousand and four hundred 
miles, — above three thousand miles of a direct run), in 
fourteen days, and without any necessity for altering a 
single sail, except for the amusement of the commander, 
or to exercise the men. We anchored in Carlisle Bay 
at five o'clock on the afternoon of Thursday, the 5th 
of December. 

On the 22d of November (and thirteenth day of our 
voyage) my remorseless enemy (who had never com- 
pletely left me for more than a few days during the 
whole of the previous twelve months) made a violent 
seizure upon the left lower extremity, and soon con- 
fined my observations to a very narrow space. The 



D VOYAGE OUT. 

foot, the ancle, and the knee, became affected in 
regular succession, and the pain — but to the initiated 
I need only say it was inflammatory gout. 

From the 22d of November till the 5th of Decem- 
ber I could not move in, and far less stir out of, my 
cot ; but when the cry of " land"''' was heard, I did beg 
to be hoisted upon deck, to see the green palms and 
velvet-looking fields of Barbados. In this I was 
kindly indulged, when I found we were approaching 
the shore near to that dangerous reef of rocks, called 
" the Cobblers, 1,1 and certainly the view which burst 
upon my sight was new and interesting, but not 
calculated to excite any great astonishment, even in 
the mind of a " Johnny Raw." 

After doubling the southern point we stood up 
along the west coast, and soon had a view of the ships 
of war and other ships anchored off Bridgetown. 
Five or six of his majesty's frigates and sloops of 
war were then in Carlisle Bay, a larger number 
than usual ; and a great many merchant-vessels were 
busily employed in discharging or taking in their 
cargoes. 

We anchored, as I have said, about five p.m., and 
the commander went instantly on shore to deliver the 
mails at the post-office ; but I was too unwell to be 
moved. With the dawn on Friday an effort was 
made. I was swung down into a boat, and as the 



VOYAGE OUT. 7 

tide answered, was rowed close under the walls of 
Hannah Lewis's respectable hotel, and carefully 
removed by two of her stout black fellows from the 
shore to the apartments that had been prepared for 
my use. 

The severity of my sufferings soon began to give 
way under the genial warmth of the Barbados climate. 
In a few days I was able to walk about my room, and 
in less than a week to ride out. In twelve days I was 
quite well, and, thank God, passed three years without 
any very serious symptom of the enemy's return. I 
hoped that gout had taken its departure for ever, 
and was about to offer some sage advice to those who 
might suffer as I had done, " recommending a trip to 
the West Indies as an infallible cure,' 1 '' but I had 
scarcely conceived the thought, when I received a 
very painful warning that, like many other " infallible 
remedies, 11 this, too, had failed. My disappointment 
was great, but the pain greater ; and the only com- 
fort I have had for many months has been in writing 
this book. 

But I have said enough, and more than enough, of 
self. The reader now knows why I went to the West 
Indies, and the way in which I got there ; and therefore 
it is time to put an end to this very uninteresting, but 
fortunately short chapter. 



CHAPTER II. 
BARBADOS. 

ADVICE GRATIS TO THOSE WHO INTEND TO VISIT THE WEST 
INDIES — FIRST IMPRESSION OF THE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 
— DESCRIPTION OF THE ISLAND — EXTERNAL APPEARANCES 
— ITS COMPONENT PARTS — DISCOVERY AND FIRST COLONY — 

SCOTLAND, ITS SCENERY, MINERAL WELLS, ETC. BURNING 

FOUNTAIN CURRENTS OF THE OCEAN REMARKABLE FACT 

CONNECTED WITH THE BURNING OF THE KENT EAST INDIA- 
MAN — VOYAGE OF A BOTTLE — HURRICANES, THEIR LIMITS — 
FREQUENCY IN CERTAIN LATITUDES — THE MOST REMARK- 
ABLE IN BARBADOS MENTIONED. 

I would say to such of my readers as intend to visit 
the West Indies, " Banish from your memories all 
that you may have read or heard of the country, the 
climate, or the people ; and, with a mind as little fet- 
tered as possible by any prevailing theory or precon- 
ceived opinion, begin and study them on the spot each 
for himself. You will find the scenery, at whatever 
island you may arrive, new, and very beautiful ; and 
every spot of earth in the Carribean sea well calculated 
to engage the attention of any one accustomed to study 
or to take an interest in the various productions of 
animated nature." The climate, according to the period 
of the year at which the traveller may arrive, will at 



BARBADOS. 



first be felt as more or less oppressively hot ; and the 
people, whether white, black, or brown, will receive 
him with a pleasing openness of manner, and an appa- 
rent kindness of heart, which, whether real or affected, 
is at first very engaging; and certainly, all classes, 
particularly the higher, are most hospitable and cour- 
teous to strangers. 

Notwithstanding many annoyances from poisonous 
reptiles, and from stinging insects, and from the sight 
of crawling vermin, and ugly creeping things, the 
newly-arrived may (if his own temper will permit,) 
enjoy tolerable comfort in any one of our M^est India 
colonies ; and, as a physician, I may tell him, that 
unless by his own imprudence he lays the foundation 
of serious disease, there is nothing inherent in the 
country, the climate, or the annoyances he may meet 
with, that will lead to any sudden attack of ill-health, 
or induce either a plague or a pestilence. 

The high degree of cultivation at which almost all 
the islands have arrived, has destroyed the virujence 
of that marsh-poison, which in former ages frequently 
proved most destructive to Europeans on their first 
landing ; but, above all, the great and salutary changes 
which have taken place in the modes of living, and in 
the habits and customs of the people ; the better edu- 
cation and more polished manners of the planters and 
merchants ; and the greater attention paid to clean- 



10 BARBADOS. 

liness and to comfort,—- have tended more than any 
other change to produce that diminished expenditure 
of human life which, for several years past, has been 
so remarkable amongst the higher classes of society in 
the West Indies, and particularly amongst the British 
officers. 

I would, however, warn the reader, that on his 
arrival in these colonies, the temptations that surround 
him at first are great, and the incitements to indul- 
gence almost overpowering, yet they must be resisted ; 
for the facility with which disease is contracted, and 
the fearful rapidity with which it runs its course, ought 
never for a moment to be lost sight of. 

On first landing, the craving desire for liquids is ; 
incessant, and most distressing; and the more we 
drink, the more our desire for drink increases, and by 
indulging this depraved appetite, there arises that 
vicious habit of tippling in the morning, which in the 
olden time too often ended in confirmed drunkenness. 
But if this desire for drink is resisted, and we endea- 
vour by gentle exercise, constant occupation, and 
social amusements (as is now generally done), to forget 
our sufferings, we shall soon overcome that lassitude 
which is occasioned by unusual exhaustion, and that 
irritation and craving for liquids, which are encou- 
raged and strengthened by solitary indulgences. The 
thirst as I have perceived, will become less and 



BAKE ADOS. 11 

less evefy day, and at last cease to give any unea- 
siness. 

There is another rule which I recommend the newly- 
arrived to adhere to with the utmost punctuality; and 
that is, to go early to bed, and to rise early. This 
" golden rule" has always been considered of as much 
value in Europe as it can be in the West Indies ; but 
I recommend it here, neither on account of the wealth 
it may procure nor of the wisdom that it may promise 
him who practises it, but to call the readers attention 
to the great difference which there is in the hours (rela- 
tively as to day and night), between England and these 
western longitudes ; and which I fear is very seldom 
taken into consideration, as I have not found it men- 
tioned even by medical writers, and I suppose it is 
never thought of by the careless voyager; yet our 
wonted periods of rest and exercise — of repose and 
exertion, are very seriously altered. 

When the hand of the clock at Barbados points to 
the hour of eight in the evening, it is already past 
midnight all over England ; and if we wait here till 
the dial-plate tells us it is our usual hour of going to 
bed, say eleven o'clock, we shall interfere greatly 
with those arrangements of nature which the habitual 
routine of our whole previous existence has made as 
it were a part of her economy. 

Every physician knows with what pertinacity the 



12 BARBADOS. 

animal machine adheres to its accustomed motions, — 
its modes and periods of action, and of rest. A few 
weeks may serve so to change our position upon the 
earth's surface, as to convert our English day into an 
American night, but the tardiness with which the 
human frame accommodates itself to so complete a re- 
volution is very remarkable. It requires many months, 
and sometimes years, at a certain period of life, to 
establish a corresponding change in the thus suddenly 
intercepted regularity of the whole of our animal 
functions. 

The reader may easily conceive, that if he has been 
accustomed, for thirty or forty years of his life, to go 
to bed at eleven at night, and rise at or before eight 
o'clock in the morning, as shown by the dial-plate in 
England, his health, and much of his happiness, will 
depend in a great measure upon the continuance of 
these regular habits; and that, although he may 
occasionally remain till a late hour at a ball or a con- 
vivial party, such irregularities, if too frequently re- 
peated, will even in Europe be attended with sickness 
and suffering ; what then must be the consequence, if 
he now takes the Barbados clock for his guide, and 
sits up till it tells him it is eleven or twelve, and does 
not rise next morning until eight or nine are striking ? 
This manner of proceeding will, for a considerable 
time, have the same effect upon his constitution as if 



BARBADOS. 



he had commenced in England to sit up every night, 
till three or four o'clock in the morning, and did not 
rise till afternoon ; and who, even here, would expect 
to enjoy health, if he began to deviate so widely from 
the course of his former life ? 

But it is time to return to Barbados. This is the 
most eastwardly of all the West Indian Islands, and 
though it seems only as a point or speck in the chart 
of the great Atlantic Ocean, it has a very interesting 
appearance when first viewed from the sea. It is im- 
possible by any similitude to illustrate sufficiently the 
irregular figure of Barbados. The southern extre- 
mity is the broadest, the northern the most contracted. 
It is convex on the east, and concave on the west side. 
Bridgetown, the capital, stands on the west coast, and 
Carlisle Bay is the harbour or roadstead of the capital. 

The surface of the island is very irregular, and 
although there are no lofty mountains, we see one or 
two points that may be considered as rather high hills. 
There is no appearance of wood until we approach 
close to the shore, and then the cocoa-nut and cabbage- 
trees, which grow along the strand, show at once that 
we have reached a new world. The quantity of wind- 
mills that are seen in every direction, reminded me of 
my first view of the city of Lisle, only that in Bar- 
bados, they are not so much concentrated as they are 
in Flanders. 



14 BARBADOS. 

This island was first discovered by a Portuguese 
ship, on her passage from India, but it is not men- 
tioned in any book or chart previous to 1600. It was 
called Barbados, either from the Lusitanians having 
found no inhabitants in the island, or rather, as it is 
believed, from its being overgrown with the Indian 
fig-tree, the tendrils from which have the appearance 
of a" Barba" beard. 

The Portuguese left some pigs, and other animals, 
on the island, which, when the English came to 
take possession, were found to have multiplied con- 
siderably. The first cargo of British settlers landed 
at that part, on the west coast, which is now called 
Hole Town, on Monday, the 17th day of February, 
1 625 ; but Foyer's History, Godwin's Slave's Advo- 
cate, and Ligon's account of its first settlement, may 
be consulted as to the early history of these colonists. 
Their disputes, and even their civil wars, while as yet 
their numbers scarcely amounted to hundreds, com- 
pose the chief portion of that history. But, indeed, 
from the very commencement, up to the present hour, 
all the evils with which our colonies have been afflicted, 
have arisen in a great measure from the persons on 
whom they were bestowed, or to whom their govern- 
ment was committed, having been chosen, rather on 
account of their influence and interest with the reigning 
powers, than for their fitness or ability to discharge the 



BARBADOS. 15 

duties required of them ; at least, such would be the 
inference I should draw from reading the history of 
Barbados. 

The figure of Barbados will at once be perceived, 
on casting the eye on the little geological map which 
I have had engraved on the opposite page, to illustrate 
my remarks on its structure and composition. This 
island is twenty-one miles in length, and about four- 
teen at its greatest breadth. 

That portion of the coast which looks to the west, 
and to the south, is in general shelving towards the 
sea, with a flat shallow beach, while the eastern and 
northern shores rise almost perpendicularly from the 
ocean to a height of from thirty to forty feet ; and, 
except in some of the small creeks, where steep sandy 
reaches occur, under the rocky cliffs, the water is 
deep close to the shore. The north-eastern coast, to 
the extent of fifteen or sixteen miles, exhibits a mixed 
character ; the low land sinking very gradually under 
the sea, and the rugged and conical hills terminating, 
not in wall-like precipices, but sloping abruptly to a 
flat extended beach. The island is nearly encircled 
with rocks, many of them rolled masses, and at a con- 
siderable distance from their original position : but 
the greater part consist of the substance of the dry 
land, extending under the surface of the water, in 



16 BARBADOS. 

tables, or rising in reefs or insulated rocks, at no 
great distance from the present shore. 

I have said, that On a first view, the surface of the 
island appeared very irregular. It may, with great 
propriety, be divided into flat and hilly. The low 
land occupies the northern, southern, and western 
parts ; and rises by precipitous broken acclivities, 
running parallel with the coast, in terraces of flat open 
country, to the highest land, somewhat to the north of 
the centre of the island. It has the appearance as if 
the land had emerged from the bosom of the deep, at 
different, and very distant periods ; and from the 
highest point to the present shore, we can trace each 
separate appearance of that portion of land, which 
was either heaved up from below, or left dry by the 
subsidence of the surrounding ocean. 

Every acclivity presents the phenomenon of a shore 
long acted upon by the ever-turbulent waves ; and the 
occurrence of deep valleys sufficiently certifies, that 
Barbados did not originally make its appearance as 
one united whole, but was at first a cluster of islets ; 
and what, as if par excellence, is still called the Val- 
ley, and which divides the Ridge from the Cliff, was 
evidently, and perhaps for ages, a channel between 
these two elevations, which continued to form two 
distinct islands, when all the other subdivisions had 



BARBADOS. 17 

already disappeared. The highest portion of this 
valley is not more than fifty or sixty feet above the 
present level of the surrounding sea. 

The highest point of land in the island is the peak 
of Mount Hillaby, exactly 1147 ^ eet above high- water 
mark, and distant about four miles in a direct line from 
the sea-shore. From this elevated mass of coral rock 
two ridges branch off, the one north-east, and the 
other south-east, and evidently act as buttresses 
and supporters ; but forming, at the same time, com- 
plete breakwaters) that prevent the force of the cur- 
rent and the fury of the waves from undermining or 
destroying the foundations of the island. These ridges 
slope down gradually, and pass under the surface of 
the sea to some distance from the coast. In the inter- 
vening space, which is of considerable extent, we now 
find a dry land altogether different in its formation 
and appearance to the rest of the country. The 
surface consists of a series of steep conical hills, nearly 
equal in height to the ridges under whose protection 
they have been formed, and which either project irre- 
gularly from the sides of these ridges, or rise in small 
groups from the plain, where their base is very nearly 
upon a level with the sea. The deep valleys inter- 
secting these hills are covered with the most luxuriant 
vegetation, but many of the hills themselves are naked 
and barren, while others are richly clothed with timber. 



18 BARBADOS. 

This extraordinary district has been denominated 
Scotland, and the Barbadian from that circumstance 
considers his isle a Little Britain. 

The scenery here is wild, irregular, and pictu- 
resque, and the external appearance of nature is 
not more dissimilar to the rest of the island, than are 
the different materials of which the soil is composed. 
The flat country, and shelving tabular land, are 
entirely calcareous, while the district of Scotland is 
composed of mineral substances belonging to the 
clay genus, particularly loam, potters^ clay, and slate- 
clay : a fine-grained friable brown sandstone, and beds 
of a black sandstone, are also found in this district. 
Beds of bituminous shale are likewise frequent, and 
petroleum, or mineral oil, more or less abundant. 

The mineral oil, so long known as Barbados tar, 
exudes from the base of some of these clay hills, and 
is collected in natural or artificial reservoirs of water. 
It is called the green oil, and is well known in Eng- 
land. In Barbados it is principally used to burn 
instead of other oils, or for painting the roofs of out- 
houses ; is reckoned a valuable remedy for horses and 
horned cattle, and applied both externally and inter- 
nally. As regards the human species, its reputa- 
tion has greatly fluctuated. It has been found useful 
in many complaints as an external remedy, and it 
has been greatly extolled by some writers for its 



BARBADOS. 19 

powerful and beneficial effects in cancer, consumption, 
and in tetanus (a disease, by the by, which is decidedly 
epidemic in Barbados), while others have declared that* 
it was totally inert. Externally, it is found to be 
stimulant ; internally, it is said to be aperient, diapho- 
retic, and diuretic. 

The great mass of the island, and all the higher 
ridges, even in Scotland, are calcareous, consisting of 
the spoils of the zoophytes, of which several species are 
strikingly evident. These are so cemented together, 
that they sometimes form a hard compact limestone, 
with conchoidal fracture and translucency on the 
edges, and at other places they exist as a dry, soft, 
friable chalk, or soft marl, in which are found a great 
variety of shells, many of them in perfect preservation. 
In many places the organic remains constitute the 
principal, and in all a very considerable proportion, of 
this formation ; and it has been observed, that although 
these remains are intimately blended together in the 
common structure, they still appear to be arranged in 
families. In some situations the madreporae, and in 
others the milleporae, are most prevalent. 

This calcareous formation, as observed, prevails 
throughout the whole extent of the island, even at its 
highest elevation, " Mount Hillaby;" which, as I have 
remarked, reaches nearly to 1150 feet ; and atHackelton, 
Cliff and ApeVhill Gully, mural precipices of this 



20 BARBADOS. 

coralline aggregate are found, above 200 feet high. 
Upon the strata of the coralline mass, beds of a white 
shelly sandstone are occasionally found, similar to that 
of Guadaloupe, in which the remains of human bodies 
have lately been discovered. This sandstone is quar- 
ried for building ; and the Barbados filtering-stones, 
so common all over the West Indies, are all made of it. 
It is very porous. 

When the beds of this stone are sufficiently thick, 
they have some appearance of stratification. Calcareous 
spar and calc-splinter occur abundantly, and occa- 
sionally small specimens of white granular limestone. 
They are attached to the common rock, and, like the 
spar, appear to have been deposited in accidental cavi- 
ties at a comparatively recent period. 

This calcareous formation is extremely cavernous, so 
that dislocations and sinking of the surface occasion- 
ally take place, even at the present time ; and, from 
general appearances, I am inclined to believe that they 
happened very frequently, and to a considerable ex- 
tent, at former periods. There are immense fissures in 
almost every part of the island, through which the 
water lodged on the surface is drawn off and con- 
ducted to the ocean by means of subterranean 
channels. Superficial springs of fresh water are not 
very numerous, and the inhabitants of the flat country 
are supplied with this necessary article of life princi- 



BATIEADCS. 21 

pally from wells, which are frequently of very con- 
siderable depth, sunk entirely through the coralline 
rock. There is an abundance of running streams in 
the hilly country, and in the same district are several 
saline and chalybeate springs. 

In Scotland, the Burning Well has attracted the 
greatest notice, and is generally the first object sought 
after by the traveller. The scenery around, where 
this bubbling fountain takes its rise, is beautifully 
romantic. It is placed at the bottom of a deep and 
rather gloomy sequestered ravine, under a hill clothed 
in all the richness and luxuriance of a tropical wood- 
land. The water, as it emerges from the earth, is 
collected, and forms a little basin, which is kept in a 
constant state of ebullition from the inflammable air 
passing through it. This air, on the application of a 
lighted taper, takes fire, and will continue to burn till 
it is again extinguished. The gas does not rise in suffi- 
cient quantity to cause any great flame, but the love- 
liness of the scenery as you approach the dark and 
gloomy spot, with the sparkling of the little dancing 
lights on the surface of the pool, must have contributed 
to give it more than usual importance when the causes 
of such phenomena were as yet unknown. 

The saline springs make their appearance at an 
inconsiderable height above the level of the sea, and are 
generally very near the base of those clay hills where 



9:9. 



BARBADOS. 



gypsum abounds. The taste and other qualities of 
these waters are said to resemble Cheltenham, but I 
do not find that they have ever been analyzed or much 
attended to. 

The clay deposit, though now formed into hills 
and plains, and of considerable extent, along the east 
coast of Barbados (as is proved to us beyond all 
doubt), rests on that coralline mass which constitutes 
the foundation of the whole, and the exterior crust of 
the greater part, of the island ; and which mass, as is 
equally proved, was the work of the submarine insects 
belonging to the order of zoophytes, while the various 
modifications of the carbonate of lime by which these 
are cemented together, are derived from, or have been 
formed by the action of the water upon, the corallines 
themselves. 

That the foundations of Barbados were first laid 
upon the summit of some submarine rock or volcanic 
cone that had not reached the surface of the ocean, but 
was within the limits or influences of solar heat and 
light, appears to me to be in some measure established 
by the following facts. We know that the Polypes 
began their labours at a very early period of the 
earth's formation, as their fossil remains constitute a 
large proportion of the transition strata ; and we know 
also that they could not exist beyond a certain and very 
limited depth : I should therefore say that the island of 



BARBADOS. 23 

Barbados might be cited as a proof that the surface of 
the Carribean sea was at one period more than 1000 
feet above its present level, or that subsequent convul- 
sions in the interior of the earth have raised the land, 
at different and distant periods, to its present elevation. 
Mount Hillaby, the highest land in the island, rises 
1147 feet above the level of Carlisle Bay, and as the 
polypes cease to labour when they have reached the 
surface of the water, and the highest point of this 
hill is a coralline rock, the sea must have covered 
it at the time of its completion. And again, as 
showing that the island was cast up from the bottom 
of the deep, or that the waters have gradually retired 
from this elevated point, we have the succession of 
lateral elevations of table-land regularly descending to 
the level of the present shore, and all showing that 
they are formations posterior to Mount Hillaby. The 
lowest range is the most recent, and every preceding 
elevation was evidently regulated by the height of 
the surrounding ocean. The myriads of its builders 
would carry up their structure until it reached the 
surface of the waters, and as recent geological dis- 
coveries have proved that granite masses have been 
elevated, even to the surface of the earth, after they 
had acquired a state of solidity, we may fairly sup- 
pose that the coralline structure that forms the present 
surface of Barbados has been raised to its present 



24 BARBADOS. 

position rather by the subsequent elevation (at far 
distant and distinct periods) of the primitive subma- 
rine rocks or mountains on which it is built, than by 
the sea having subsided and left it thus exposed. 

The first foundations of Mount Hillaby must have 
been laid upon the highest point of these rocks, 
which, being afterwards heaved up above the tide, 
brought their next portion within the range of light 
and heat, so as to enable the insect artificers to spread 
their labours over fresh surfaces. The whole primi- 
tive mass, however, having received another heave, 
these second works would be brought above high- 
water mark, and further progress stopped. The same 
upward movement brought within their reach a third 
and a fourth foundation, which were of course 
seized upon, and a structure raised, and again stopped 
by the further rising of the primitive rocks. We 
know that the same labourers are still at work upon 
what may be called the fifth series of these submarine 
foundations, which, possibly, some future convulsion 
in the earth's centre may suddenly raise into the open 
day. The summit of the primitive mountain on which 
Mount Hillaby rests must now be more than 1000 feet 
above the present level of the ocean, and therefore, 
taking a j ust view of the whole phenomena, I think it is 
more probable that the island has been elevated, than 
that the waters have been depressed. One or other, 



(" c s 






■ 
ii . 



BARBADOS. 25 

however, must have been the case; for, as we have 
stated, there is evidence sufficient to prove that the 
island, as now constituted, did not emerge all at once, 
but has been exposed by degrees, and after what may 
be called long ages of time. 

It is also evident, that the clay-formations must have 
been deposited in their present position after the coral 
rocks had attained their existing elevation, and that the 
ingredients that now compose the surface of the earth 
in Scotland, must have been brought by the waters of 
the ocean at a period subsequent to the formation of 
the coral. That they were brought by a stream or cur- 
rent setting from a north-east point, and which, meeting 
with resistance, allowed the argillaceous earths and 
other materials to accumulate in this protected basin, 
and in similar situations. It is scarcely necessary to 
add, that a strong current setting from the north-east 
still exists, and I believe its influence prevails to a 
greater extent than is generally supposed. 

My readers may all recollect the melancholy acci- 
dent of the burning of the Kent East India ship in 
the chops of the British Channel some few years ago. 
On board of that ship was Lieutenant-colonel M'Gre- 
gor, now of the 93d Highlanders, who was going out 
with the regiment he then commanded to India. 
When all hope of saving the ship was at an end, and 






26 BARBADOS. 

death seemed inevitable, the Colonel sat down and 
wrote a short narrative of what had occurred, and the 
little probability that existed of any person being saved. 
This paper was put into a bottle, and while he was in 
the act of corking that bottle, so as to secure the writ- 
ing, the cry of " a ship in sight" was heard. What 
became of the bottle after that moment he had no 
recollection ; but about three or four years ago, he went 
out to Barbados to take the command of his present 
corps, and shortly after his arrival at St. Ann's he was 
waited upon by a gentleman connected with one of the 
newspapers published in Bridgetown, and who, after 
some little explanation, presented to the Colonel his 
original manuscript from on board the Kent, which 
had been found in a bottle picked up by a negro on 
the northern shore of the island. As it must have 
been the existing current that brought this bottle from 
the British Channel to the shores of Barbados, might 
not the ancient, and, perhaps more powerful, current 
carry the mud and minerals of Britain to the same 
spot ? Its influence must have been very extensive. 
We know that, stopped by the isthmus of Darien, the 
same current is now reflected through the Gulf of 
Mexico, and, passing between the shores of Florida 
and the Bahama bank, it constitutes the gulf-stream 
so well known to mariners, and which so powerfully 



BARBADOS. 2*J 

affects the navigation of the Atlantic. The reader 
will excuse this digression ; but I return to a con- 
sideration of the formation of Barbados. 

Supposing the bottom of the ocean to consist of 
mountains and valleys, as does the present dry land in 
every country and in every situation, there is nothing 
more probable, as I have stated, than that the Polypes, 
when they commenced the building of Barbados, seized 
upon some lofty hill, and there began their labours. 
That after the greater portion of the structure had 
reached the then surface of the ocean, the current just 
referred to, brought from the north-east the slime and 
mud which soon filled up that great basin formed by 
the ridges from Mount Hillaby, and deposited those 
substances which now constitute the surface of the dis- 
trict called Scotland, and that they were retained in 
this basin by the banks of coralline with which it was 
surrounded. 

There are upon record many remarkable instances of 
the superincumbent clay soil becoming detached from 
its coral bed, and slipping down from nearly the top to 
the bottom of the ridge, destroying some villages and 
swallowing up others. The roof (as is supposed) of 
some large hollow cavern giving way from the addi- 
tional pressure now brought over it, and allowing the 
clay earth, and all that was upon it, to pass down 
into the hollow caverns of the coral rock. 

c 2 



28 BARBADOS. . 

The mountains of the neighbouring islands are 
almost all formed of primitive rock, and we may there- 
fore fairly conclude that the first coralline formation 
which constitutes the highest point of Barbados, was 
begun and completed, as explained, on one of these 
primitive rocks that did not quite reach the surface, 
and that the whole island is now merely a crust or 
excrescence attached to the said primitive rock. Of 
the thickness of this crust it is impossible to give 
an opinion, for the walls of the deep ravines which are 
now exposed and standing almost perpendicular, do 
not in any way direct us in forming a judgment. 
They are only to be considered as elevated ridges 
passing over the surface of the said crust, and the 
disappearance of houses and fields which I have men- 
tioned, and which has frequently happened, would 
lead us to imagine that some of the hills at all events 
were hollow globes. 

That the action of the current and of the waves is 
undermining and encroaching upon the windward 
coast of the island is beyond a doubt, and that in time 
they may sweep away the whole of the calcareous in- 
crustation from the summit of the primitive submarine 
mountain on which it is based, is also possible. If the 
elevations upon the surface of this incrustation are not 
solid masses, but merely hollow cones, their destruction 
will be more rapid, and their disappearance sudden. 



BARBADOS. 29 

I am not aware that any shock of an earthquake 
has as yet done much damage in Barbados, but the 
ravages of the hurricane have been great and terrible. 
When I landed in December, 1833, a great part of 
Bridgetown was still in ruins, and the whole island 
bore marks of the destruction produced by the whirl- 
wind and the storm which had raged with such devas- 
tating fury during the night of the 10th, or rather 
morning of the 11th of August, 1831. 

These hurricanes are an extraordinary phenomenon 
in the West Indies. Their violence is confined to 
certain months, and they are fortunately bounded by 
very narrow limits : they have commonly been known 
to occur in the months of August and September, and 
part of October, though there are many instances of 
their appearing in July, and, I believe, even so late as 
November. But what I consider as more extraor- 
dinary still, they have never been known to pass a 
certain limit, whether to the south or north. Their 
ravages have hitherto been restricted to between the 
eleventh and twenty-first degrees of northern latitude. 

The first colonists had scarcely had time to take 
root in the island, when Barbados, as appears from its 
history, was visited (1670) with a tremendous hurri- 
cane ; another followed in 1674, and in 1675 one, still 
more terrible, swept the island of every house and tree 
except the few that were sheltered by some neighbour- 



30 BARBADOS. 

ing cliff: this took place on the 31st of August. In 
1700, and 1702, Barbados suffered from storms, and 
again in 1731 ; but, from that date till 1780, I do 
not find that any sad disaster is recorded. On the 
10th of October of this year (1780), the heavens at an 
early hour were overcast with a most dismal darkness, 
and the unusual aspect of the clouds plainly indicated 
the devouring storm. At dawn of day the wind, 
rushing with a mighty force from the north-west, was 
accompanied with heavy rain, and before mid-day 
many buildings in different parts of the island were 
in ruins. Towards evening the storm increased, and 
at nine o'clock had attained its height, but it con- 
tinued to rage till four next morning, when there was 
a temporary lull ; but " like a vindictive tyrant (says 
the writer from whom I quote) who, in his expiring 
moments, is insatiate with the carnage of his strength, 
it struggled to complete the work of desolation and 
death. Before day-break, the castle and forts, the 
church, every public building, and almost every house 
in Bridgetown, were levelled with the earth*.'" This 
visitation was ever afterwards denominated the Great 
Hurricane, for it was not till two years ago that a 
greater occurred. Great, however, as were the ravages 
of many of the eruptions of nature by which this 

* Account of the Hurricane, 1831. By the Editor of the 
" West Indian," — a well written Barbados paper. 



BARBADOS. 31 

island had suffered, the aggregate destruction produced 
by them all was probably not equal to that effected by 
the single storm of August, 1831. Though more 
than two years had elapsed since the hurricane had 
taken place, it was still the subject of conversation in 
all societies, and every person who had been in the 
island at the time it occurred, had some extraordinary 
anecdote to relate which had come within their own 
knowledge. I shall therefore begin a new chapter 
with some account of this awful tornado. 



32 



CHAPTER III. 
THE HURRICANE OF 1831. 

A FULL ACCOUNT OF ALL THE PHENOMENA PREVIOUS TO, AND 
DURING THE CONTINUANCE OF, THIS AWFUL VISITATION — 
ANECDOTES OF PERSONS MIRACULOUSLY PRESERVED, AND 
OF THE FORCE OF THE WIND — ATTEMPT TO ACCOUNT FOR 

THE CAUSE OF THESE AWFUL VISITATIONS REGULARITY 

OF THE UNDER-CURRENT OF AIR, OR TRADE-WINDS, BLOW- 
ING FROM EAST TO WEST — PROOFS THAT AN UPPER-CUR- 
RENT BLOWS FROM WEST TO EAST — ACCOUNT OF THE VOL- 
CANO of st. Vincent's, in 1812 — alarm created in 

BARBADOS THE EFFECTS IN ST. VINCENT'S. 

The only thing remarkable in the weather for July, 
1831 , in Barbados, was the unusual quantity of rain ; 
it, indeed, is said to have rained almost incessantly. 
The trade-winds, however, blew moderately and stea- 
dily from the proper quarter, and the atmospheric 
temperature was uncommonly uniform : the maximum 
is noted at 86°, and the minimum at 79°. 

Towards the end of that month thunder and light- 
ning were of frequent occurrence, and electric clouds 
hung over the island. In Bridgetown, the 1st of 
August commenced fine, with light breezes from the 
north-east, but by nine a.m. the weather had changed, 
the wind blew strongly, and the remainder of the day 



BARBADOS. 33 

was wet and cloudy, and in some parts of the island 
the thunder was very severe, particularly in the 
neighbourhood of Chalky Mount, in the district of 
Scotland, where the lightning shattered a small house, 
killed a white child, and wounded the mother. 

On the tenth morning of the month, it was remarked 
that the sun rose without a cloud, and shone resplen- 
dently through an atmosphere of the most translucent 
brightness ; at six a.m. the thermometer stood at 80°, 
at eight it rose to 85°, and at ten, to 86° ; at which hour 
the gentle morning-breeze, which had, up to that 
moment, fanned the country, died away : occasion- 
ally, after this, high winds sprang up from the east- 
north-east, but soon subsided. Calms generally pre- 
vailed, with puffs from between the north and north- 
east points of the compass. At noon the mercury 
stood at 87°, and at two p.m., 88° ; at four it had sunk 
to 86°. At five, the writer from whom this account 
is taken was in the country, about a mile and a 
half to the northward of Bridgetown. He remarked 
that the clouds were gathering very fast from the north, 
and the wind commenced blowing strong from the same 
point. A shower of rain fell at this time, after which 
there was a remarkable stillness, which was made more 
impressive by the dismal darkness of the clouds on 
the horizon all around. This dark impenetrable body 
of cloud extended up towards the zenith, leaving there 

c 5 



34 BARBADOS^ 

an obscure circle of light apparently about 35° or 40° 
of the celestial concave in diameter. This dismal 
circle remained at rest a few seconds only, when the 
scud of it was seen to be in a state of ebullition. The 
dense mass of cloud, all around, was also agitated and 
separating ; bodies of it were dispersed to all points of 
the compass. From six to seven p.m. the weather was 
fair and the wind moderate, with only occasional 
slight puffs from the north ; the lower and principal 
stratum of clouds passing fleetly to the south, while 
the higher strata and scud seemed driven with almost 
equal rapidity to every point of the compass. 

After seven o'clock the sky was clear, and the air 
calm, and this continued till after nine, when the wind 
began again to blow from the north. At half-past 
nine it freshened, and showers of rain fell at intervals, 
up to half-past ten o'clock. About this period distant 
lightning was observed in the north-east and north- 
west, and squalls of wind, with rain, came from the 
north-north-east, which continued, with intermediate 
calms, till midnight. 

The thermometer during the whole of the evening 
had varied with remarkable activity ; during the calms 
it stood at 86°, but at other moments it fluctuated 
from 83° to 85°. After midnight the continual flash- 
ing of the lightning was awfully grand, and a gale blew 
fiercely from between the north and the north-east. 



BARBADOS, 35 

At one a.m. of the 11th, the tempestuous rage of the 
wind increased. The storm, which at this moment came 
from the north-east, suddenly shifted to the north-west. 
The upper regions of the air were from this time 
illuminated by incessant lightning, but the quivering 
sheet of blazing fire was far surpassed in brilliancy by 
the darts of the electric fluid which were exploded in 
every direction. It was, however, at a little after two 
o'clock a.m. that the astounding roar of the hurricane 
rushed from the north-north-west, and north-west, with 
a horror and impetuosity that no language can describe, 
or mind conceive. Some of my friends who heard it, 
compared it to the agonizing shrieks of millions of 
human beings in the last agony of despair ; and said 
that there was something most heart-rending and most 
piercing in the wail or scream, which never ceased. 
About three, the wind occasionally abated, but only 
to return in gusts from the south-west, the west, and 
the north-west, with accumulated fury. Fiery meteors 
were observed by more than one person to fall from 
the heavens, and one friend told me, he saw one in 
particular, of a globular form and deep-red hue, 
descend perpendicularly from a great height, and he 
remarked that it fell evidently by its own specific 
gravity. On approaching the earth its motion was 
accelerated, and it became of a dazzling whiteness, 
and elongated in form ; and, dashing on the ground 



3b BARBADOS. 

in one of the paved squares of the town, it splashed 
around in the same manner as melted lead would 
have done, if thrown out of the furnace, and was 
instantly extinct, though the brilliancy and spattering 
of its particles, when it reached the earth, gave it 
the appearance rather of a globe of quicksilver. 

A few minutes after the appearance of this pheno- 
menon, the deafening noise of the wind sank into a 
solemn murmur, or, more correctly, it resembled a 
distant roar, and the lightning, which since midnight 
had played in flashes and forked darts with scarcely 
any intermission, seemed for half a minute to hover 
between the clouds and the earth, moving frightfully, 
and with a novel and surprising action. There seemed 
a vast body of vapour almost touching the houses, 
which apparently caught fire from the clouds, and con- 
veyed it, flaming, downwards, while another thousand 
torches were lighted from the earth, and mounted to 
the sky. 

While this strange phenomenon continued, the earth 
was felt to vibrate, in a manner and in time answering 
with the aetion of the lightning. Twice, or more, 
when the coruscations were more brilliant and severe, 
but less rapid in their motions, the earth received cor- 
responding shocks. The moment this singular alter- 
nation of the lightning passing to and from the earth 
ceased, the hurricane again burst from the western 



BARBADOS. 3J 

points with a violence exceeding all that had as yet 
been experienced, and hurling before it the fragments 
of every unsheltered structure of human industry. 
The strongest buildings were found to vibrate to the 
very foundation, and the surface of the very earth 
trembled as the destroyer passed over it. No thunder 
was at any time heard, and, as every one concurred in 
reporting, had the cannon of a million of batteries been 
discharged, their sound could not have been distin- 
guished, so overpowering were the horrible roar and 
yelling of the wind, and the noise of the tumultuous 
ocean, whose frightful waves threatened to sweep into 
the abyss all that the other elements might spare. Such, 
indeed, was the appalling scene, that the heart sank in 
despair, and the mind became altogether bewildered, 
and with many, their reason for a time was shaken 
from her throne. 

I have heard many of my friends declare that they 
felt it quite impossible to give any expression of the 
sensations which then distracted, confounded, and in a 
manner benumbed, all their faculties. The sight and 
the hearing were overpowered, and the excess of horror 
refused admission to fear. One friend told me that, 
when his senses in some measure returned, he found 
himself standing up against the wall of the room in 
which he was sleeping when the hurricane com- 
menced. The roof had been removed from the house, 



38 BAJlBADOS> 

and every article from the room, except some frag- 
ments of the wall that had been blown down : how he 
had escaped destruction he knew not. 

The unparalleled fury of the tempest continued 
without any interruption till four o'clock. It blew 
from the west and southward of west, and was attended 
with what was considered the dashing of heavy rain, 
but, from what many have told me, that this rain was 
quite salt, I am inclined to think it was the waves of 
the sea carried inland by the force of the wind. 
After five o'clock the storm now and then abated, 
during which lulls, the falling of substances which 
had apparently been carried high into the air — the 
shrieks of suffering victims — the cries of the terrified 
inhabitants — and the mournful howling of the dogs, 
were all distinctly heard, and awakened in the mind of 
the listener a fearful apprehension of the scenes of 
death and misery with which he was surrounded. At 
about half-past five the wind suddenly moved round to 
the east, and though it may be said that the hurricane 
still raged (sometimes veering to the south) until seven 
o'clock, it was not with that force which had been pre- 
viously experienced. 

At eight o'clock strong breezes blew from the east- 
south-east, and about that hour the dense body of 
cloud that hovered over the island began to break up, 
and at ten a.m. the sun looked down for a few moments 



BARBADOS. 39 

upon a scene of wretchedness and misery more sicken- 
ing to the human heart than any, perhaps, that was 
ever witnessed. The humble cot, and the most costly 
mansion, had alike been hurled to destruction. Parents 
beheld their children, and children their parents, hus- 
bands their wives, and wives their husbands, buried in 
the ruins, or strewed around them, disfigured corpses ; 
others, with fractured limbs, and dreadful mutilations, 
were still alive, and many of them rescued from under 
the fallen buildings ; and it was dreadful to hear their 
heart-piercing cries of agony. Many streets in the 
town were totally impassable, from the houses having 
been lifted up from their foundations, and thrown in 
one mass of ruins into the roads. Masses of rubbish, 
broken furniture, ships' spars, packages of merchan- 
dise, huge blocks of mahogany, seemed to have been 
washed up, and carried by the wind or the tide to 
great distances, so as completely to block up the 
streets and highways. 

The whole face of the country was laid waste, 
scarcely any sign of vegetation existed, and what did 
remain was of a sickly green. The surface of the earth 
appeared as if fire had passed over it, scorching and 
burning up every thing. The few trees that were still 
standing were stripped of their boughs and foliage, 
and appeared as withered trunks. 

The garrison of St. Ann's, which is about two miles 



40 BARBADOS. 

distant from Bridgetown, and considered the head- 
quarters of our West India force, presented a far 
more deplorable appearance than did the citadel of 
Antwerp after all the battering which the French 
could bestow upon it. An officer of the commissariat, 
his three children, with a female relative, and two ser- 
vants, were buried in the ruins of their habitation, and 
perished. The number of non-commissioned officers 
and soldiers, and of women and children, that were 
killed, was only forty-three ; but about three hundred, 
including all classes, were very seriously hurt. The 
total number of persons killed in the island, or who 
died of their wounds, was about 2500, and the number 
of wounded exceeded 5000, while the amount of pro- 
perty destroyed was estimated at nearly two millions 
and a half, island currency. Many extraordinary 
circumstances, and most extraordinary escapes, are 
recorded, — none certainly more extraordinary than 
that related to me by my late excellent friend Colonel 
Diggens, then barrack-master at St. Ann's. 

A mother, a daughter, a female slave, and a child of 
two years of age, were living together in a cottage near 
his garden- wall. When the hurricane was at its height, 
they heard the roof of their cottage going off, and 
immediately rushed to the door for safety, the daughter 
carrying the child. At the same instant the door 
was blown from its hinges and fell down, and, in the 



BARBADOS. 41 

horror of the moment, the young lady dropped or lost 
the child, and during the night it was no more 
heard of. Next morning, the mother and daughter 
were found alive, in an open space of ground near the 
ruins of their cottage, and conveyed to the residence 
of Colonel Diggens. The person who had discovered 
these females, and had conveyed them to a place of 
shelter, then went to assist the Colonel in extricating 
his horses from the ruins of their stable : while so 
employed, they heard the cry of an infant, and, upon 
examining around, discovered at a little distance from 
them a child about two and a half years old, perfectly 
naked, and black with cold. This was the child 
which had been lost, when the mother and daughter 
had made their escape from their cottage. A wall, 
nine feet high, divided that cottage from the garden 
of Colonel Diggens, and the conjecture was, that 
the child had fallen from the arms of the young 
lady, and dropped upon the outer door of the cottage, 
which had just then been blown down, and that, by 
some strange swirl of the wind, this door had been 
lifted up with the child upon it, carried over the 
nine-feet wall, and deposited in the Colonel's garden, 
where both it and the child were now found. 

I have often seen the hero of this adventure, who was 
from that moment adopted by the kind-hearted Colonel. 
Many persons, I was assured, in their endeavours to 



42 BARBADOS. ' 

escape into the open streets, were cut in two by the 
shingles blown from the roofs of the houses; and I 
myself saw, at the residence of the Venerable Arch- 
deacon Eliot, a branch of a tree through which a frag- 
ment of a shingle had passed, and which had been 
retained in its position by a large nail that went 
across the fissure. If we consider the yielding nature 
of the branch, and the blunt edge of the shingle, we 
shall be able to form some idea of the force which 
could propel it through so hard a substance, so as to 
split the branch as if a wedge had been driven 
through it. 

At the residence of Thomas G. Bushby, Esq., a 
piece of soft deal was driven into the branch of a fustic- 
tree : it was believed that this deal had been blown 
from the naval hospital, a distance of one-third of a 
mile. It was a soft fir deal, and the branch through 
which it had penetrated is one of the species called 
iron- wood, and with which, for hardness, no European 
wood can be compared. 

To those who were exposed in the open fields, the 
heavens often appeared as all on fire, with balls of fire 
flying in all directions, and bursting exactly like shells 
from a mortar. A piece of lead, weighing about 150 
pounds, was carried more than 600 yards ; and one, 
weighing 400 pounds, was lifted by the wind and 
carried to a distance of 560 yards. I mention these 



BARBADOS. 43 

striking facts, which were fully ascertained, to show 
the force and strength of the hurricane. There are 
several instances recorded, of children having been 
blown from the arms of those who were endeavouring 
to escape with them, and who were afterwards found 
alive, and recovered. At Mount Wilton, a negro 
woman had her head severed from her body by a slate 
which had been carried from the roof of a dwelling- 
house at Bloomsbury, nearly a mile from where she 
stood. I might mention a thousand other accidents and 
hair-breadth escapes, but I believe I have said enough 
to give the reader a tolerable idea of the awful nature 
of this visitation, and the ruin and misery which it 
entailed upon Barbados, to which island its fury 
was chiefly confined. The only other island to which 
it extended, with any great degree of violence, was 
St. Vincenfs, where property to the amount of more 
than 160,000/. was destroyed. 

Having now detailed some of the effects of this 
dreadful hurricane, I am tempted to offer a few words 
as to what may be the cause of these visitations. 

The regularity with which the current of air moves 
from east to west, upon the surface of the earth and 
sea, within the tropics, is a fact constantly observed 
since the period that Columbus first navigated the 
Western Ocean. The trade-winds, within a certain 
extent of latitude which never varies above a degree 



44 



BARBADOS. 



or two, may be calculated upon with as much cer- 
tainty by the adventurous mariner, as the revolutions of 
day and night. But though these winds, as we know, 
and to a considerable elevation, always blow in this 
one direction, it is now ascertained, and I believe fully 
admitted, that a current of air in the still higher 
regions is as constantly moving or blowing in a direc- 
tion from west to east. If any theorist had been 
inclined to dispute this previously, his doubts, I ima- 
gine, would have been set at rest by what occurred in 
the island of St. Vincents, in 1812. 

About midnight, of the 30th of April of that year, 
the inhabitants of Barbados were roused from their 
slumbers, and greatly alarmed, by what appeared 
a heavy cannonading at some little distance, and actu- 
ally flashes, as from the guns, were observed to lee- 
ward. It was, therefore, believed that some part 
of our fleet had fallen in with an enemy's squadron, 
and that a naval action was going on. Sir George 
Beckwith, who commanded, was so perfectly con- 
vinced of this, that he ordered the troops under arms ; 
and before two a.m. of the 1st of May, had made 
arrangements to act as necessity might demand. 
The sounds of firing increased about three a.m., and 
afterwards gradually died away. The sky was per- 
fectly clear, and the atmosphere serene, until after the 
day had dawned. Dense masses of cloud were then 



BARBADOS. 45 

collected over the island, from which, instead of rain, 
torrents of an earthy dust, finer than sand, were 
poured down upon the island. The sun rose invi- 
sible, and all nature became involved in darkness, 
more intense than was ever witnessed in the blackest 
midnight. The alarm of war soon gave place to other 
thoughts, and all minds were affected with dread and 
consternation, for the cause of this phenomenon seemed 
wholly inexplicable. 

It was apprehended by many, and not without 
reason, that the last day had commenced ; and 
many now sought the house of God through fear, 
groping their way with lanterns in their hands, that, 
during the whole of their previous lives, had never 
troubled themselves with any thoughts of God or of 
religion. 

It was not till twenty minutes past noon that a gleam 
of light afforded some rays of hope to the dismayed 
Barbadians. After that hour the falling of the dust 
gradually abated, and the brightness of the afternoon 
soon dissipated their fears. In Bridgetown the stra- 
tum of dust was about an inch in thickness, but in 
some parts of the island it was more than six inches 
deep. The captain of the ship Neptune, of Limerick, 
who was 500 miles to the eastward of Barbados, had 
the sails and decks of the ship covered with similar 
dust, and many ships navigating in the open ocean, at 



46 BARBADOS. 

more than 200 miles to the eastward, were covered 
with it. 

The chemists of Bridgetown, as soon as their alarm 
had subsided, began to analyze this dust. They dis- 
covered it to be volcanic, but from whence it had come 
they could not conjecture. Five days after this event 
a vessel, with despatches for Sir George Beck with, 
resolved the enigma. The Souffriere, or Brimstone 
Mountain, in St. Vincent's, had burst forth in flames, 
and laid the whole colony in ashes ; and the dust 
that had fallen in Barbados, and, as was afterwards 
proved, more than 500 miles to the eastward of that 
island, had been vomited forth by the volcano in 
St. Vincent's. 

The history of this singular eruption will only 
occupy a page or two, and, as it is interesting, I shall 
give it before I go on with my theory as to the cause 
of West Indian hurricanes. 

On Monday, the 27th of April, 1812, while the 
noontide bells were ringing upon the several planta- 
tions in St. Vincent's, a sudden and tremendous explo- 
sion of the volcano took place, accompanied by a tre- 
mulous motion of the earth. A vast column of 
smoke was seen to ascend from the crater, from which 
also were discharged immense quantities of a fine, 
gritty, calcined earth, and other substances. On Tues- 
day, the 28th, the column of smoke and ashes appeared 



BARBADOS. 47 

to ascend perpendicularly to a great height ; on the 
following day it seemed to dilate towards the highest 
portion that could be observed, and the mountain and 
its neighbourhood were enveloped in a thick mist, 
which the rays of the sun being unable to penetrate, a 
shade, as of twilight, was cast over the whole island. 
Fire was, for the first time, observed this night, about 
the edge of the crater. The eruption continued 
increasing, and on Thursday the masses of vapour 
assumed a ferruginous or blood-stained tint, and 
ascended with much greater rapidity. In the after- 
noon of that day the noise became incessant, with a 
vibration that affected the feelings as much as the 
hearing ; but as yet there was no convulsive shock of 
the earth. Birds now fell to the ground, covered with 
ashes ; and the cattle (from the pasture and all vegeta- 
tion being covered with the same ashes,) were perishing 
for want of food. At four p.m. the noise became louder 
and more alarming, and as day closed, large sheets of 
flame were observed to burst through the smoke. Elec- 
tric flashes quickly succeeded, attended with deafening 
peals of thunder. Huge spouts of fiery fluid were 
vomited forth, while the zig-zag lightning seemed to 
play with the still-increasing column of smoke. Burn- 
ing masses were thrown up, and exploded like rockets, 
while others were shot off obliquely like shells. 
Shortly after seven the mighty caldron seemed in 



48 BARBADOS. 

ebullition, and a stream of lava burst forth on the 
north-west side, which, in about three or four hours, 
reached the sea in its liquid burning state. At half 
past one a.m. another stream was poured out to the 
eastward. The thundering awful noise of the moun- 
tain, mingled with the monstrous roar of the lava 
flowing over the surface, became so terrible that dis- 
may now yielded to despair. 

The first shock of an earthquake was felt about 
this time, and was followed by a shower of cinders, 
which continued falling with a hissing noise for 
upwards of two hours. About 3 a.m. stones of a 
small size began to fall. The coruscations, roaring 
and crackling of the mountain, at this time exceeded 
all that had previously taken place. The eyes were 
struck with blindness, and the ears were stunned to 
deafness with the confusion of sounds. The rain of 
stones continued for about an hour, when it was 
succeeded by cinders and ashes. During the whole 
of this time, the island was in a state of continued 
undulation, not agitated by any shocks, but rather 
like a solid substance swimming in water kept in 
motion. 

The morning of Friday dawned like the day of 
doom. A gloomy shadow enveloped the mountain, 
and a dismal haze, with black sulphureous clouds, 
hung over the sea. In the afternoon, the voice of the 



BARBADOS. 49 

mountain became silent, but flames continued to issue 
from its summit for several days. The depth of 
volcanic matter in some places was fourteen inches, 
but near the town not above half an inch. 

The distress and famine which followed this erup- 
tion it is not my intention to enter upon. I have given 
its history, because it is most interesting, and that I 
may bring the facts it has furnished to bear upon my 
theory of hurricanes. 

St. Vincents is seventy miles to the westward of Bar- 
bados, and the Limerick ship, Neptune, was 500 miles 
to the east of Barbados, — consequently we have the dust 
or ashes from the mountain carried nearly 600 miles, 
in a direction quite contrary to the undeviating course 
of the trade-winds ; I must therefore assume, that this 
dust was thrown up with such force as to be carried 
into the higher regions of the air, where it met with a 
a current that conveyed it rapidly to the eastward, and, 
as must evidently have been the case, to a far greater 
distance than where it was found to fall on the 
earth's surface ; for the moment that its specific gra- 
vity brought it within the limits of the lower current, 
it would again be carried to the westward, and to a 
considerable distance also, before it could reach the 
surface of either land or ocean. Here, then, I allege, 
we have positive proof that there is an upper current 

P 



50 BARBADOS. 

of the atmosphere passing as constantly to the east as 
the trade-winds blow to the west. 

The higher we rise in the atmosphere the more it 
must be condensed. It is the absorbed heat given off 
from the surface of the land and sea, and not the solar 
beams, that rarefies and expands the air in contact 
with these, so as to fit it for the useful purposes of life. 
We may therefore suppose, that at a great height, the 
air which would occupy 10,000 cubic inches of space 
on the surface of Barbados, will be so condensed as 
not to occupy more than 100 cubic inches. If this is 
granted, we may further suppose, that by some com- 
bination of the solar influences, or by the abstraction or 
accumulation of the electric fluid, a vacuum is suddenly 
formed in the lower strata of the atmosphere through 
which the upper strata rush down to the earth's sur- 
face in their condensed form ; and that when stopped 
by the solid earth, they expand with that force and 
violence which constitutes the whirlwind and the hur- 
ricane. 

This vacuum in the lower strata (in whatever way 
it may be formed) I would liken to the barrel of an 
air-gun, and the earth's surface to the trigger, that 
allows a certain portion of the compressed air to escape ; 
and we know, that in proportion as the air has been 
compressed or condensed within the receiver, so will it 



BARBADOS. 51 

give force to the ball which it propels from the tube. 
The extraordinary developement of the electric fluid 
during this hurricane, and the appearances of the sky, 
so accurately described by the editor of the West 
Indian, immediately before its commencement (from 
his own personal observations), all lead to the conclu- 
sion, that it was the rapid descent of the air from the 
higher regions, and in a condensed form, that caused, 
by its sudden expansion on reaching the heated earth, 
all the horrors and devastations of this West Indian 
tornado. I also think, that it is owing to some electric 
influence that the vacuum is created in the lower strata 
through which the torrent rushes down from the 
higher regions. 

Why, then, it may be asked, are the hurricanes 
confined to certain months, and restricted to such 
narrow limits ? I believe, that were the natural history, 
and the formation, of the islands in the " Hurricane 
Tract" fully understood and explained, we should find 
enough of physical causes to warrant the assertion, 
that they are peculiarly adapted to produce the influ- 
ences that cause the hurricane. This is an investigation, 
however, which I do not at present enter upon ; and, 
at any rate, it is time to conclude this chapter. 



d 2 



52 



CHAPTER IV. 
COLONIZATION. 

TAKEN POSSESSION OF BY SETTLERS FROM ENGLAND, IN CON- 
SEQUENCE OF THE ACCOUNT OF IT BROUGHT HOME BY A 

DUTCH CAPTAIN HAY, EARL OF CARLISLE, MADE KING OF 

THE WEST INDIES RESPECTABILITY OF FIRST SETTLERS 

THE HONOURABLE CONDUCT OF THEIR DISTINGUISHED 
DESCENDANTS CONTRASTED WITH MEN IN OTHER COLONIES 

EARLY OPINIONS RESPECTING THE AFRICAN SLAVES 

FREE TENANTS THEIR CHARACTER. 

Though the Portuguese first discovered the island, 
and are said to have given it a name, it was not until 
after a Dutch ship had visited and examined its capa- 
bilities, that it excited any attention in Europe. 

The Dutch captain, on his arrival in Holland, gave 
such a flattering account of his visit, that it attracted 
the attention of the English ambassador, who secretly 
transmitted the details to his friends in London, and 
they without loss of time fitted out two or three ships 
with adventurers. These went and took possession of 
Barbados in the name of the king of England, and from 
that hour (February 17th, 1625), to the present time, it 
has never acknowledged any other authority. James I., 
immediately before his death, had granted the sove- 
reigntv of Barbados, and of the other British colonies 



BARBADOS. 53 

in the West Indies, to his favourite, Hay, Earl of 
Carlisle; other courtiers, at subsequent periods, got 
this grant changed or modified, but it was under the 
auspices of Hay that Barbados rose into importance, 
and after him the waters of Bridgetown were called 
Carlisle Bay. Many of the first planters were con- 
nected with the highest families in England. Their 
descendants have been ennobled, and many gentlemen 
of Barbados have been created baronets of Great 
Britain. I am not surprised, therefore, that the Bar- 
badians should assume a proud bearing. The present 
race may not have inherited either the wit or the 
wisdom of their great ancestors, but from what I 
have seen and known of them, I am justified in assert- 
ing, that they are still high-minded and honourable 
men, with less prejudice on many points than men of 
less pretensions. 

While the question of slave emancipation was 
agitated, and still in doubt, they opposed it in every 
possible way, seeing in it, or believing they saw, the 
lin of themselves and families, and the devastation of 
their beloved island. But the moment the law was 
passed, the gentlemen of Barbados, and I believe I 
may say the same of all the old British colonies, had 
no other feelings or views, than how to carry it into 
effect with the greatest benefit to all parties. Ancient 
prejudices, no doubt, did in many instances bias their 



54 BARBADOS. 

judgments, and prevent their sometimes seeing the 
proposed regulations in a right point of view on their 
being first mooted, but there never was any desire to 
oppose the Government from factious motives, and far 
less from any petty matters of pounds, shillings, or 
pence, arising from selfish considerations. There was 
a noble and disinterested bearing in all the opposition 
that the Negro-regulation laws met with in the General 
Assembly of Barbados; and although the language 
of the speakers was not always as decorous as it 
might have been, nor as acceptable to the ruling 
power as some could have wished, still, with the 
exception of sometimes hinting that Sir Lionel Smith 
had acquired, from his long residence in the East, 
feelings not altogether in accordance with those of the 
more liberal sons of the West, there was nothing that 
I could see either personal or insulting. It was the 
measures, not the man, that they attacked ; and in 
so far as their conduct came under my observations, 
they were always ready to confess their error, and to 
retract their opinion, when they found that their first 
impressions were wrong. 

I state these circumstances with infinite pleasure, 
because I think the gentlemen of the Council and 
House of Assembly, as well as the whole body of pro- 
prietors in the colony, deserve to have their conduct put 
upon record, and the more so, as there was a complete 



BARBADOS. 55 

contrast in another place. It matters not where ; but 
there were men who did smile and seem to assent, as if 
they fully agreed to, and acquiesced in, all the measures 
taken to procure the enactment of the Slave Abolition 
Bill, while it was yet in progress. But when that Bill 
had actually passed, and had become the law of the 
empire, and they found their personal interests were 
secured, they endeavoured to make its enactments 
prove abortive, and certainly tried to obstruct the 
happy working of the measure in every possible way. 
Luckily, however, for the best interests of society, and 
of the whole community to which they belonged, this 
feeling was confined to a small number, and they 
found themselves baffled in all their attempts to work 
mischief. The conspiracies and revolts which they 
had so confidently predicted and announced, could 
not be discovered, or had disappeared when they came 
to be inquired after. The alarm which they suc- 
ceeded in creating, they contrived to keep up for a 
time, and they prevailed upon the timid and the unsus- 
picious, as well as many that were swayed by early 
prejudices, to join in their clamour, and so far to abet 
their wickedness, as to lend the sanction of their names 
to petitions for the redress of grievances which had 
no existence but in their own biassed minds. Instead 
of combating the measures they had objected to by 
reason and sound argument, as was done in Barba- 



56 BARBADOS. 

dos, these men found it easier to assail with personal 
invective. They found calumny a readier weapon than 
truth, and bold assertion far more convincing with 
their timid followers, than even the plainest facts; 
and though it can no longer be concealed, even 
from themselves, that they were wrong and had 
imagined a vain thing, so far as I know they have not 
yet come forward to confess their errors. 

But I have wandered from my subject too long, 
and must now return to the colonization and cultiva- 
tion of Barbados. The gentlemen who first emigrated 
to this island carried out with them a number of white 
labourers, and these became the first cultivators of the 
soil ; for as yet the traffic in human flesh had not 
been much practised by Englishmen. These white 
labourers were soon found unequal to the fatigues of 
agriculture in a hot climate, and it therefore became 
necessary to procure Africans. These, at their first 
importation, were actually considered an equivocal 
race, between man and monkey.. 

Such a doctrine, I believe, was really promulgated, 
for the purpose of removing somewhat of that disgust 
which had come to prevail against the traffic of buying 
and selling our fellow-creatures. There were, at this 
time, and long afterwards, as is well known, monsters 
in human shape, who sailed the seas, and made it their 
chief business to steal the helpless and the unwary from 



BARBADOS. 57 

our own shores, — whole villages were laid desolate, and 
the inhabitants carried off and sold in the colonies. 
No animal is so savage as man. But the curse of God 
was upon these pirates and man-stealers. 

The colonists refused to purchase their Christian 
brethren, or to receive their fellow-creatures into 
slavery from these kidnappers, and hence it became 
necessary, as I suppose, for the traders to assert, 
that the black African was only half-human. The 
reader may smile at this assertion, but the subject 
was seriously discussed, both at home and in the colo- 
nies, and it was decided at one time, that they were 
unworthy of receiving baptism, and ought not to be 
allowed to enter where the word of God was preached. 
In confirmation of this, I have only to refer to the 
early history of Barbados, and Godwin's Slave's 
Advocate. 

The descendants of the first white labourers had 
small pieces of land allotted to them for their mainte- 
nance, and afterwards formed a class known as the 
free tenants of Barbados. A remnant still existed 
when I landed in the island, and were reported to 
be the most indolent, ignorant, and impudent race of 
beggars that were ever tolerated in any community. 

The population of the colony last year was about 
15,000 white, and 87,000 or 88,000 coloured persons, 
all enjoying the blessings of liberty, under a mild 

D 5 



58 BARBADOS. 

and a paternal government, and all equally protected 
by just and wholesome laws. And, what is of still 
greater importance, all perfectly happy and contented 
in the several relations in which they stood with regard 
to each other. The wheels of labour have not been 
retarded, even for a moment, far less stopped. I have 
seen Barbados as a slave-colony, and I have seen it 
free, therefore may venture to offer an opinion. 

Every inch of earth that will raise a plant is duly 
cultivated. The island is overloaded with inhabitants, 
- — labour, therefore, is cheap, in comparison with the 
other colonies ; but so industrious are the lower classes, 
that provisions are at all times reasonable, and of the 
best quality. All the wheaten flour consumed in the 
island is imported, but the bread-corn of the peasantry 
consists of maize and millet (the Indian and the Guinea 
corns, ZeaMays and Sorghum vulgaris). The latter 
is most commonly cultivated, and the crops are gene- 
rally abundant and most productive. I observed that 
this corn was seldom ripe for the sickle before the 
middle, or rather the end, of January, when the long 
stalks from which the leaves are withering, and the 
round bushy brown tops, give the harvest-fields a 
singular appearance. 

The Barbados yams (Dioscorea sativa) are excel- 
lent ; far superior in my opinion to our best potatoes, 
and far more nourishing as an article of food. All 



BARBADOS. 59 

the fruits and vegetables of a tropical climate are culti- 
vated with great care, but of course the staple articles 
of produce are sugar and rum ; and no other island, 
of the same extent, has ever produced such quantities 
of these as Barbados has done. The value of her 
exports to Great Britain is above half a million 
annually, and her imports may be calculated at nearly 
400,000 pounds sterling, while the shipping employed 
averages from 17,000 to 18,000 tons. These are 
matters, however, which are better told in the pages 
of Montgomery Martin; I must therefore refer the 
reader to his commercial tables. 



60 



CHAPTER V. 

NATURAL HISTORY OP BARBADOS. 

NOT VERY ABUNDANT IN MINERALS SHELLS FOUND IN THE 

CHALK BEDS NOT PETRIFIED GREAT VARIETY OF SHELLS 

FOUND ON THE SHORE — FLYING-FISH COMMON HERE — 

BARRACUTA, A DANGEROUS FISH CRABS ABUNDANT 

DR. MAYCOCK, AUTHOR OF THE FLORA BARBADENSIS 

BIRDS AND LIZARDS. 

When we contemplate that little spot of earth which 
forms the Island of Barbados, perched, as it no doubt 
is, upon the top of a lofty submarine mountain, and 
consider the ages that must have been consumed in its 
formation with the myriads of little insects employed 
in its construction, we may indeed exclaim — " Great 
and marvellous are Thy works, O Lord /" 

The mineralogy of the island is in no way interest- 
ing, and affords very little variety. In the calcareous 
formation there are only found a variety of shells 
preserved, not petrified ; but in the clay-deposit, 
within the district called Scotland, there are several 
substances, some of which I have already mentioned ; 
— the brown and the black sandstone, the gypsum 
in fragments and crystals, nodules of flint and iron- 
flint, with several iron-ores, such as clay iron-stone, 
compact black iron-stone, and brown ochre iron-stone. 



BARBADOS. 



61 



In a hill named " Chalky Mount," from its white 
appearance, there is a bed of porphyritic slate, or 
clink-stone porphyry, about eighteen inches in thick- 
ness, lying between beds of very loosely-cohering 
sandstone, and dipping to the north-east at an angle of 
thirty degrees. Rolled fragments of the calcareous 
rocks are found in endless variety throughout the 
clay-deposit, some of them at a considerable distance 
from their original situation, to which, however, they 
can generally be traced; indicating that they have 
been broken off by the violence of the waves, and 
carried to their present position, before the mud had 
become sufficiently solid to form the present soil. No 
remains of animal or vegetable substances have ever 
been discovered in the minerals found in the clayey 
deposit. 

I have already mentioned the burning spring, and 
recorded the existence of mineral wells; and have 
only therefore to observe that all the fresh water in 
the island is strongly impregnated with calcareous 
earth. 

On the shores are found many beautiful, and some 
rare shells, and a great variety of fish, some of them 
very excellent as food : the most abundant, however, 
are the flying-fish, which seem to congregate here as do 
the herrings in Europe; and indeed, they evidently, 
from taste, smell, and habits, appear to be a species of 



62 BARBADOS. 

the Clupea. Sharks of an enormous size are often 
seen in Carlisle Bay, and a fish called the Barracuta, 
it is said, sometimes, plays sad pranks with men 
when bathing ; and, indeed, if we happen to have our 
hand hanging over the sides of the boat in which we 
are carried along the shore, one of these gentlemen 
will very impertinently take a fancy to a finger or two, 
and carry them off for his dinner : such accidents 
have actually happened. 

The land and the sea crab are very abundant, or 
rather, I may say, that those most observed are 
common to both sea and land. When pursued on 
the sea-shore, they will dart to their holes with the 
speed of a swallow, and it is neither a straight- 
forward nor a retrograde, but rather a side-long, 
movement. They are not large in Barbados, though 
they do say " they are fond of the church-yards." 
They are very excellent food, though far inferior 
to the black crab of Jamaica. 

The greater portion of the island has been entirely 
cleared of wood, though the cocoa-nut and the cab- 
bage-tree are planted along the shores, and give a 
beautiful and Indian appearance as you approach the 
beach. One hundred cocoa-nut trees are said to be a 
young lady's " Tocher"'' (fortune) in Barbados, as they 
are considered equal to a rental of one hundred pounds 
per annum. Many such Dowries of cocoa-nut trees 



BARBADOS. 63 

were destroyed in the last hurricane, for not one tree 
in a thousand escaped its ravages. The cabbage-tree 
is planted more for ornament than use, as I do not 
believe it is turned to any account, except to make a 
few bottles of pickles for European friends. 

With regard to " the beauties which Flora dis- 
closes," no soil can be richer than that of Barbados, 
and the lover of botany will find here almost all the 
variety of fruits and flowers that exist in the whole 
Caribbean Archipelago. Sir Hans Sloane may justly 
be considered as the father of West India natural 
history. This distinguished physician left England 
in 1687j in the suite of the Duke of Albemarle, then 
appointed Governor of Jamaica. He sailed on the 
12th of September, and arrived at Jamaica on the 
19th of December, having visited Madeira, Barbados, 
and several others of the islands, particularly Nevis 
and St. Kitt's. On the death of his patron, Sir Hans 
returned to England, and published the " Catalogus 
Plantarum," and the " History of his Voyage, with 
the Natural History of Jamaica ;" and these works 
have been found most valuable as fertile sources from 
which botanical knowledge has flowed. 

The next person who pursued the same inquiry 
was Dr. Patrick Browne, one of the correspondents 
of Linnaeus, and held in high estimation by that great 
philosopher. Swartz, Aublet, Jacquin, Plumier, and 



64 BARBADOS. 

others, have largely contributed to our knowledge of 
intertropical plants ; but it remained for the late 
Dr. Maycock, alike distinguished as a physician, 
a man of science, and a gentleman, to give what may 
be considered a correct and scientific arrangement of 
the plants indigenous to, or naturalized and cultivated 
in Barbados. 

This distinguished botanist died lately, in the 
flower of his age. He was a member of His 
Majesty's honourable Privy-council in Barbados. I 
received much kindness from him while I remained 
in the island, and am chiefly indebted to his con- 
versation, and to his valuable work *, for the little 
knowledge I have gained of the natural history 
of Barbados. There was a work published in 1750, 
by the Reverend Griffith Hughes, which is entitled, 
" The Natural History of Barbados ;" but it is not 
accurate. 

The Sandbox-tree (Hum crepitans) is a beautiful 
and picturesque object ; but I saw none in Barba- 
dos that appeared very old. The Barbados Pride 
(Poinchciana pulcherrima) forms the common hedge- 
rows, and a beautiful flower-fence it makes. The 
Trumpet-flower (Bignonia unguis) is common as a 
weed ; while the Aloes-plant and the Tamarind-trees 

* Flora Barbadensis. 



BARBADOS. 



65 



are found in every garden; and before the magnifi- 
cent Crested Amaranth (Celosia cristata) the dwarfs 
of Europe must hide their diminished heads. The 
Fan-palm is common, and the Prickly-pear forms a 
very good fence. Ginger is cultivated to some extent, 
and is exported both in a dried state and as a sweet 
preserve. 

Barbados is in no way remarkable either for the 
number or variety of its feathered tribes. I did not 
see a single vulture or carrion crow in the whole 
island. There is only one variety of the humming- 
bird, and that not of the most brilliant plumage. 
The most frequent visitor in the neighbourhood of 
Bridgetown, was a jet black bird, with a long tail, 
considerably larger than the black-bird of Eng- 
land. They fly in flocks, and seem to live upon 
insects and the small lizards with which the earth 
here literally swarms. Their sweet plaintive note 
of " weep-poor-will," when once heard can never 
be forgotten. 

Near to the house in which I resided, there was a 
large sandbox-tree, and morning after morning I was 
amused and interested by watching the descent of 
thousands of lizards, that had evidently passed the 
night in its lofty branches. As the rays of the rising 
sun began to play upon these branches, the reptiles 
commenced their movements ; collected upon the trunk, 



66 



BARBADOS. 



and gradually, but with great caution, made their way 
towards the earth. The main body was generally 
preceded by a column of light troops or scouts ; who, 
if they perceived any enemy approaching, retreated 
most nimbly, and having given the alarm, the whole 
retired for a time to their nightly hiding-places. 
Again the scouts were sent forward ; and if the coast 
was clear, the whole body came down with a rush, and 
made their way in every direction to the nearest grass 
and underwood that afforded a cover. Independent of 
the black birds already mentioned, the domestic fowls 
seemed also to have a great relish for these lizards ; 
and the cunning way in which the chickens would 
conceal themselves until the whole column had reached 
the ground, and the alertness with which they would 
then fly to the spot and pick up the stragglers, was 
not a little amusing. 

These lizards are seldom more than two or three 
inches in length ; generally of a green colour, but 
some are of all colours, with a most piercing and 
lively eye, and a short and rather well-shaped head. 
They, in their turn, were equally alert in hunting for 
flies, and other small insects ; and the singular devices 
they had recourse to, in order to deceive and entrap 
their prey, showed a wonderful degree of instinct. 
Sometimes they would be as dead upon the stone or 
pavement, until the fly came within their reach ; at 



BARBADOS. 67 

other times, one would get behind a leaf, and push it 
forward as if moved by the wind, and when within a 
proper distance, a sudden spring made captive the 
victim. 

A large species of hornet, called here " the Jack 
Spaniard" was very troublesome, and its sting most 
painful. When I took possession of my residence in 
the country, one or two water-courses near it had 
become choked up with briars and brush- wood. They 
formed an arch over the rocky ravines, leaving a 
passage under for the water to run through in the 
rainy season. In December these ravines were quite 
dry, and there it was that the Jack Spaniards had 
established their hives. Their nests were like a piece 
of honey-comb, of two or three inches square, attached 
to the twigs and under branches of the brush-wood, 
and in countless numbers, but all in separate pieces. 
To attempt to dislodge them by cutting down this 
brush- wood was out of the question ; for the moment 
we approached their retreat, we were instantly 
assailed by thousands. I therefore got collected a 
large quantity of dried grass and straw ; this was 
made into bundles, and thrown into the water-way. 
Burning wood was thrown in also, and the straw 
being ignited, the flame and the smoke soon routed 
the whole horde, which rising high into the atmo- 
sphere, disappeared ; and left us to clear away the 



68 BARBADOS. 

rubbish at our leisure. The " Marabunting" a small 
wasp, builds its nest after the manner of the wasp in 
this country ; but, instead of seeking out a crevice, or 
hollow tree, it generally hangs the nest in the form of a 
pouch or bag, to a depending branch, and is attached to 
it with such firmness, and the outer covering so strong, 
that neither wind nor rain can affect it. I do not find 
in my diary, any remark with regard to the Mason 
Bee; another very singular insect, resembling the 
wasp tribe, but not very common in Barbados. 
This last I shall have to treat more at large in the 
natural history of the other colonies. 



69 



CHAPTER VI. 
DISEASES IN BARBADOS. 

THE BARBADOS LEG TETANUS EPIDEMIC INTERMITTENT 

AND REMITTENT FEVERS NOT CONTAGIOUS SOON GENE- 
RATE A CONTAGIOUS FEVER NUMBERS OF SICK AND OF 

DEATHS IN OUR MILITARY HOSPITALS BAD EFFECTS OF A 

SALT-MEAT DIET IMPORTANCE AS TO HEALTH OF FRE- 
QUENTLY CHANGING REGIMENTS IN THE COLONIES. 

The most common diseases in Barbados are chest- 
complaints, and dysentery, with inflammation of the 
eyes, from the reflected glare of ' the sun, and the 
quantity of finely-pulverized chalk always floating in 
the atmosphere. There is a horrid and loathsome 
species of the Elephantiasis, vulgarly known as the 
Barbados leg : it was formerly far more severe and 
common amongst the negro and coloured population 
than it is now ; still we cannot walk half a mile without 
seeing some cases of it, — some poor wretch trailing a 
limb larger than the body, and covered with excres- 
cences and ulcers. Dr. Stewart, a physician, resident 
in Bridgetown, while I was in Barbados, found quick- 
lime, mixed with warm sea-water, a valuable remedy ; 
but I suspect that if the disorganization of the tissues 
has gone to any extent, the disease is incurable. 



70 BARBADOS. 

Dr. Maycock assured me that tetanus was epidemic 
in the island ; but, except the bilious remittent fever, 
the scourge of all our colonies, I am not aware that 
there is any malignant disease peculiar to Barbados. 

The island may be said to have been healthy for 
some years past ; but when the epidemic does make 
its appearance, it is very fatal, and very soon assumes 
a contagious or virulent character. The last visitation 
was a very severe one, and many of the inhabitants, as 
well as of the military, were carried off. 

I spent a good deal of my leisure time in Bar- 
bados in searching the medical records of the military 
hospitals, and I may as well give a few of the results 
here, as I consider them both interesting and instruc- 
tive, as medical statistics. 

I have perfectly satisfied myself that the purely 
remittent and intermittent fevers of the West Indies 
are, as in Europe, the genuine offspring of a subtile 
something which the medical writers have called the 
" Marsh-poison," and are not contagious. But that 
in any country, and more especially within the tropics, 
if the wards of an hospital, the rooms of a barrack, or 
even the quarters of a garrison, become crowded with 
cases of these fevers, another disease is speedily gene- 
rated, and is so highly contagious* that it will carry 
destruction throughout a whole colony; hence the 
propriety of inculcating separation, and dispersion, 



BAREAD0S. Jl 

whenever agues, or remittent fevers become prevalent 
or epidemic amongst a body of troops, or in a crowded 
community. 

In five years, from 1823 to 1827 inclusive, the total 
number of sick admitted into all the military hospitals 
in the Windward and Leeward Island command, was 
47,005, and of these 15,344 were cases of fever. The 
total number of deaths during the same period was 
1783, and of these 697 were fr° m fever. 

In four years, from 1829 to 1832 inclusive, the 
total of admissions was 39,122, and of that number 
16,704 are marked cases of fever, of whom 418 died. 
I state these facts, to show the comparative frequency 
and great mortality of febrile in comparison with 
other diseases in the West Indies. The diseases 
which are next in number, in the medical returns, are 
dysentery and diarrhoeas, arising, in almost every 
instance, from the coarse indigestible and unnatural 
food with which the poor soldier is compelled to fill 
his stomach ; but, at the same time, I am convinced 
that many of the cases marked dysentery in the 
registers, were cases of what I would call scorbutic 
haemorrhage from the bowels, and ought to have 
been classed as such. 

It would be both wisdom and humanity, as well as 
great economy, to throw aside all the English and 
Irish contracts for salt beef and pork, and allow the 



72 BARBADOS. 

commissariat on the spot to procure those supplies of 
fresh meat and vegetables which are required for the 
proper nourishment of the troops, and are so import- 
ant as regards their health and efficiency. I state it 
from authentic documents, and the fullest information 
collected on the spot, that there is not a colony, or 
corner of a colony, where British troops are quartered 
in the West Indies, that is not capable of supplying 
these troops, whether few or many, with fresh beef of 
the best quality, and at a cheaper rate than what the 
salt provisions cost the country before they are deli- 
vered out to the soldiers' messes. 

This of itself, one would imagine, was sufficient to 
cause inquiry ; but when I add, that more than a 
third of that mortality which is so dark a feature in our 
colonial military service, is occasioned by that rotten- 
ness of the constitution which is produced by improper 
and unwholesome diet, (and I do not state this upon 
slight or untenable grounds,) it is a question that ought 
seriously to engage the attention of our civil as well as 
our military rulers. 

The salted meats, I readily admit, are the best that 
can be procured, and are most excellent of their 
kind ; but to the soldiers in the West Indies they are 
doubly pernicious. In the first place, they do not 
furnish a sufficient quantity of nourishment to the 
body, while the superabundance of the muriate of 



BAKBADOS. ^JS 

soda, as every physician knows, produces that unna- 
tural and unhealthy state of the blood which is so 
characteristic of a scorbutic tendency ; and, in the 
second place, this diet excites such a craving for 
liquids, that no resolution or strength of mind can 
overcome it. Hunger is a severe suffering, but thirst 
is far more distressing ; and were death in the cup it 
could not be resisted. Why, then, I would ask, per- 
sist in measures, neither called for by necessity, nor 
recommended by economy, and which are so conducive 
to the irregularities of the soldier, and so fatal to his 
health. 

If I should succeed, at last, in drawing the atten- 
tion of the country to this subject, important under 
every consideration, as a religious, a moral, and a poli- 
tical question, I shall feel more than rewarded for all 
the misery I have been made to suffer for having 
mooted the question, in opposition to the frowns, and 
almost direct commands of those, who at the time had 
the power to annoy, and who did not fail to use that 
power, though they could not convince the world 
" that salted meats were preferable to fresh, as an 
article of diet in the West Indies^ 

No truth can be more firmly established, than that 
in some of the islands of the Caribbean sea, and in 
some districts of particular islands, the annual loss of 
human life is much greater than in other islands 



74 ' BARBADOS. 

or districts. No doubt some casual circumstance or 
atmospheric change may and will alter the character 
of any island or district, and produce an epidemic, 
frightful in its ravages, and of some duration ; yet still 
these are only a temporary visitation, and are not to 
be considered in the light of such places as where it 
may be said the destroying angel never sleeps, and 
where the inhabitants as well as our troops are always 
unhealthy. I had, therefore, always considered, before 
I went to the West Indies, that the more frequently 
our troops were moved from one island or colony to 
another, or that a change of quarters took place 
within the same colony, the more healthy the troops 
would become. Others, however, of my profession, 
and men of experience, too, held a different doctrine, 
and maintained, that it was just as fatal for a regi- 
ment to be moved from Barbados to St. Kitfs, or 
from St. Kitfs to Trinidad, as it was to be moved 
from England to either of these colonies. 

This was a question which I felt most desirous of 
establishing, by facts that should be free from all 
suspicion, and which must carry with them perfect 
conviction. On my arrival, therefore, at Barbados, I 
commenced my inquiries, and carefully pursued the 
history of several regiments, through a series of years 
and at different periods ; and without troubling the 
reader with details which are only important in a 



BARBADOS. *]5 

professional point of view, I can assert, without fear 
of contradiction, that those regiments which have 
been the most frequently moved from island to island 
have always been the healthiest ; and that the deaths 
in a regiment that has been kept stationary, have 
always greatly exceeded those of the regiments that 
have occasionally changed their quarters. This is 
a subject that I recommend to the consideration of 
those who have the power of turning it to account. 

The 25th regiment, kept stationary, lost 258 men in 
six years. The 93d, kept moving, lost only 294 in 
nearly eleven years, or during the whole time they 
remained in the West Indies. 

The climate of the West Indies is neither favour- 
able to mental energy, nor conducive to moral habits ; 
and more especially, if the monotony of the same 
pursuits and indulgences be superadded. It is often 
by change and activity alone that disease is prevented. 
The general reader is, no doubt, tired of the doctor, 
and thinks he has got a sufficient dose of medicine. I 
shall, therefore, stop here, and begin Chapter VII. with 
Religion. 



e 2 



76 



CHAPTER Vl.t 
RELIGION. 

GREAT EXERTION MADE AT A VERY EARLY PERIOD TO CON- 
VERT THE NEGROES OPPOSITION OF THE PLANTERS 

PRESENT IMPROVED CONDITION OF THE COLONIES AS RE- 
GARDS RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION BISHOP OF BARBADOS. 

HIS ZEAL AND SUCCESS IN PROPAGATING THE GOSPEL 

EXCELLENT CONDUCT OF THE CLERGY — DR. COLERIDGE'S 
CONDUCT ABOVE ALL PRAISE. 

I have said, that in the early publications respecting 
Barbados, it is stated, that it was made a matter of 
debate even in England, and was asserted boldly in 
several instances, that the African was not a human 
being, but a gradation between man and monkey, 
without any rational soul, and therefore to be classed 
with the beasts that perish. Such assertions, however, 
did not hinder some pious men from proceeding to 
Barbados at a very early period of its settlement ; 
and who accounted it no dishonour to preach to, and 
instruct the black slaves, and zealously to labour 
amongst them to promote their welfare in this world, 
and more especially in the next. These men were 
ministers of the Church of England, and their labours 
were not altogether in vain. Every means, however, 



BARBADOS. 77 

were had recourse to (even to persecution,) to banish 
such missionaries from the colony. 

Though they could no longer deny their humanity, 
the early planters were soon satisfied that the less 
their slaves knew of the Gospel of Christ, they would 
be the better fitted for the duties they had to require 
of them ; and although the island was divided into 
parishes, and churches were built for the accom- 
modation of the white population, the clergymen 
were strictly prohibited from preaching to the blacks. 
On no account could a person of colour be allowed 
to enter any of these churches ; and it was not even 
permitted that their bodies should be buried within 
the same enclosure where that of the white man 
was committed to the earth. Until a very late date, 
indeed, this marked distinction was kept up, though in 
many other respects the slaves were indulged and 
kindly treated. 

Clergymen, as we find, were regularly appointed to 
the parish churches as they became vacant, the 
patronage being in the governor of the island ; but I 
regret that I am compelled to add, that few indeed of 
these incumbents (however well-intentioned in the 
first instance,) remained steady in their conduct, or 
showed much zeal for the great cause which they had 
undertaken to defend. The young and thoughtless 



78 BARBADOS. 

proprietors of the soil took a delight in making the 
Parson as miserable as possible, until he became as 
one of themselves, and was blind to their faults and 
follies. The pious and faithful Christian minister 
was, therefore, obliged to take his departure from the 
island, and leave the field to some more complying 
brother. True and vital religion, in as far as the 
Established Church was concerned, was long at a 
dreadfully low ebb. And so little anxiety did our 
bishops in England show for the interests of religion 
abroad, that almost any man during the last century 
could get ordination for the colonies. Under such 
circumstances, I am, therefore, not at all surprised, 
that these colonies were overrun by all descriptions of 
sectaries ; some, no doubt, moved by a sincere desire to 
spread the truth of the Gospel, while many were more 
calculated to excite discontent and rebellion amongst 
an ignorant and superstitious heathen population, than 
to sow the seeds of peace and good-will. Their 
language and demeanour were more likely to confirm 
error than to explain and establish the great truths of 
the Christian dispensation. Indeed, it may be said, 
without much exaggeration, that for nearly two cen- 
turies, there was little of religion and nothing of 
discipline in the West India Church. She seemed 
abandoned by the mother country as unworthy of 



BARBADOS. 7$ 

even the slightest consideration, while the sectaries 
were allowed to prosper in their career, doing little 
good and much mischief. 

Whether the planters themselves began to dread the 
effects of unrestrained enthusiasm, or the Church began 
to rouse herself from her criminal slumber, I cannot 
at this moment positively affirm ; but certain it is, 
that about thirteen years ago a change came over 
the spirit of the times. These distant corners of the 
empire were regarded with more complacency, and the 
erring shepherds, and their careless flocks, were at last 
considered worthy of being received into the great fold 
of our Protestant Establishment. Two eminent men 
were selected, and, after due consecration, sent out in 
1825 as bishops to the West Indies. The Windward 
Islands were made the first See, and Jamaica and its 
dependencies the second. It is of the former I am now 
to speak, and that from personal observation, for of 
the latter I know nothing except from hearsay, and 
that in a court of justice is no evidence. 

Of the excellent and pious Bishop of Barbados and 
the Islands I know not well how to write, — for whether 
we regard him as a man, a minister of the Gospel, or 
as the guide and guardian of a Christian Church, he is 
in all respects above praise. With patience, and much 
forbearance, but at the same time with firmness, he has 
overcome many difficulties. He has nearly succeeded 



80 BARBADOS. 

in removing from the churches every minister of the 
old leaven, and has filled up their places with men of 
sound learning and sound doctrine, men of whom it 
may truly be said, that they are well calculated to 
adorn the doctrine of Christ our Saviour, and well 
qualified to minister in holy things. 

Churches and chapels are now arising in every 
colony, and from the attention which the Bishop has 
given to the characters and qualifications of the candi- 
dates for livings, such only have been selected as are 
distinguished for zeal in the good cause, and whose 
learning and sound piety are certain of securing to 
them that respect and consideration which their sacred 
character so necessarily demands. Already the pastors 
of the Barbados bishopric will bear a comparison 
with those of England itself, and more able or pious 
labourers are not to be found in any corner of the 
Christian world. Dr. Coleridge's see is divided into 
two archdeaconries, the Windward, and the Leeward. 
Archdeacon Eliot resides in Barbados, and Arch- 
deacon Parry at Antigua. 

The hurricane, of which I have endeavoured to give 
some account, destroyed and levelled almost every 
church and chapel in Barbados ; but such has been the 
indefatigable exertions of the Bishop and his excellent 
clergy, that not only all that previously existed have 
been rebuilt, but several new charges have been esta- 



BARBADOS. 81 

blished. The want of church accommodation has 
been long felt, and loudly complained of, in Great 
Britain and Ireland; but it was nothing in compa- 
rison with what the colonies suffered when Dr. Cole- 
ridge was appointed to the see ; in fact, it had never 
entered into the imagination of those who first planted 
the churches in our colonies, and divided these colonies 
into parishes, that the black population were of any 
account in such an arrangement. They were looked 
upon, as I have shown, as altogether without the pale 
of the Church ; consequently, provision was only made 
for the few planters and their families, that resided in 
the district, together with their white overseers and 
servants. 

No black or coloured persons were allowed to 
enter the consecrated temples of the Living God. 
The good Bishop, however, soon made it known, 
that he should consider every class, and all colours, 
of professing Christians (equal as they were in the 
sight of God) equally entitled to share in the blessings 
and benefits of Christ's Holy Gospel ; — that the 
house of God was open to all, and that every one 
was invited, nay, commanded, to come and hear that 
Gospel preached. The clergy throughout the diocese 
were peremptorily commanded to make these senti- 
ments fully known to all classes of their communities, 
and to take care that no authority whatever might 

-e 5 



82 BARBADOS. 

contravene them without its being reported. A few, 
and I believe but a very few, felt alarmed, at what 
they considered worse than high treason itself, or even 
a hurricane ; but after a very short time, when they 
found that the canes still continued to grow, and that 
sugar and rum might still be made from them, their 
terrors seemed to subside, and even some of these 
alarmists are not ashamed now to occupy a pew with 
their black servants. 

More crowded or more devout congregations I 
never witnessed in any country than in Barbados, and 
in others of the colonies ; and it is gratifying to observe 
the progress which many grown-up people have made 
in the knowledge of the great truths of religion. 
As to the rising generation, they will be as well, if not 
better, educated than the children of the lower classes 
in England. The ministers of all denominations of 
Christians are not less improved in their manners 
and conduct, than are the members of the Establish- 
ment; and indiscreet zeal, and inflammatory mysti- 
cism, have given place to a pure devotion, and the 
steady inculcation and plain explanation of the great 
and practical truths of Christianity. There is a 
rivalry, no doubt, kept up, but it is a rivalry of 
love ; and that mutual harmony, that peace and 
good-will, which now exist amongst all the Christian 
ministers in the West Indies, clearly indicate that the 



BARBADOS. 83 

Spirit of all Grace is with them, and that their labours 
are blessed. 

If it was formerly the duty of the planters (from 
worldly motives and personal interests) to prevent the 
spread of religion amongst their black slaves, it is now 
much more their duty and their interest to promote it 
amongst their free negroes, and, indeed, God, I hope, 
has opened their eyes and their understandings to see 
this, for every assistance and encouragement is given 
to the building of churches and schools, and every 
pains taken to provide the people with proper ministers 
and teachers. 

There may be individuals, and I regret to say there 
are some in the West Indies, as in every country, who, 
destitute of all religious feeling and belief themselves, 
can see no advantage in teaching it to their people ; 
but even these have latterly found the tide of popular 
opinion so strong against them, that they have been 
compelled to remain silent, or forced to sail with the 
stream ; and I should scarcely be credited, were I 
able — which I really am not — to detail the progress 
that has been made in moral and religious improve- 
ment in the short space of eight or ten years. 

Writing, as I do, with a view to instruct the igno- 
rant of these kingdoms in some few matters that may 
be interesting as regards our colonial policy, I regret 



84 BARBADOS. 

that I am compelled to notice, and that, perhaps, in 
rather strong terms, the cold indifference which seems 
to exist somewhere, with respect to the religious and 
moral instruction of our soldiers, and their families, on 
colonial service. With whom this neglect originates, 
or why it exists, I have not yet been able to ascertain, 
but that it does exist I have now to show. 

While a regiment remains at home, that is, in any 
part of the United Empire, the soldier is most carefully 
attended to, and all his wants are supplied. His 
food is of the best quality, and abundant in quantity. 
His barrack-rooms are clean, and his bed is comfort- 
able ; and, whether Catholic or Protestant, he is com- 
pelled to attend a place of worship every Sunday; 
and, whether he may profit or not, he is at any rate 
enabled to hear the Gospel preached. The moment, 
however, it becomes that regiment's turn of duty to 
proceed on service to our West India colonies (I shall 
speak only of what I know, and to what I can testify,) 
the men are frequently so crowded together, as to be 
deprived of every comfort, and have their health 
much injured. Their diet is such as many of them 
have never before tasted ; and when landed under the 
burning heat of a tropical sun, they are fed on salted 
meats for five days in the seven. This quantity of 
hard salted meat would produce an agony of thirst 



BARBADOS. 85 

even in Europe ; in the West Indies it is intolerable, 
and leads to irregularities that are, alas ! too often 
fatal to the individual. 

In some of the colonies, the bedding is still com- 
posed of materials unfit, and unwholesome ; though I 
must do the Board of Ordnance the justice to say, 
that they have ordered that every man should have a 
hair mattress, and, consequently, neglect is not attri- 
butable to them. 

While, therefore, many circumstances are calcu- 
lated, as it were, to demoralize, and to draw him 
from the path of duty and of moral rectitude, there is 
not, I believe, a single church or chapel throughout 
the whole of the Windward and Leeward command, 
into which a British soldier has a right to enter, — 
certainly not one to which a regiment can be marched 
to hear the Gospel preached. There is only one 
regular military chaplain in the whole command, and 
he is stationed in Trinidad, where there is no chapel or 
any convenience whatever for preaching to the military, 
and where he is compelled to read the morning prayers, 
or a part of them, in the open gallery of the barracks, 
or in the barrack-yard. 

In Barbados, where there are seldom fewer than 
1200 men, and two or three hundred women and chil- 
dren, a clergyman is hired at seven-and-siocpence a 
day, whose chief duty it is to bury the dead, to 



86 BARBADOS. 

christen such as may be born, and now and then to 
marry an officer or a soldier. He does, indeed, make 
every effort to read the morning prayers to the different 
regiments from the steps in front of their several bar- 
racks, but where, though the men are formed in as close 
order as they can stand together, not one in fifty can hear 
a word of what is read, while the powerful rays of the 
rising sun are drawing up around them the noxious 
vapours, that enter their empty stomachs and lungs, 
and pollute the stream of life. 

The short time that is passed in this dumb show of 
what is called religious duty, (and fortunately it is 
short,) is generally productive of several cases of 
fevers, of one description or another, or of dysenteries, 
from the men standing on the grass, still wet with 
dew. These church-parades, as they are called, are 
the most fertile sources of the worst hospital cases. 

If the same money had been laid out in building a 
church, at St. Ann's, where the garrison could attend 
divine service regularly, that has been spent in building 
a high wall to separate the barracks on the east from a 
few grog-shops in their rear, it would have been much 
more advantageous to the poor soldier's well-being in 
this world, to say nothing whatever of his peace of 
mind, and of his souFs salvation in the next. 

It may truly be said, that, during the whole of the 
ten or eleven years that the soldier is absent in the 



BARBADOS. 87 

colonies, he is compelled to live without God in the 
world. No measures whatever are taken to procure 
for him either the conveniences or the consolations of 
hearing the word of God preached, or of attending to 
any one religious duty ; how then, I ask, can we 
expect that his moral conduct will be correct ? In 
the good old times, every regiment had its chaplain, 
and even during the war, the Duke of Wellington had 
a clergyman attached to every division and brigade of 
his army ; I therefore recommend it seriously to the 
notice of the authorities at the Horse Guards, to 
consider, whether it would not be better to provide for 
the spiritual wants of our soldiers on service, and 
more especially in the West Indies, with a little more 
care and anxiety, and to direct their attention to the 
procuring of a more nutritive and congenial food, and 
to the means of securing greater personal comfort, than 
it would be to have recourse always to the terrors of 
the law, and this more especially when it has been so 
fully proved that no species of punishment, however 
severe or varied in its nature, can deter soldiers from 
the commission of crime. 

Our speculative and political philanthropists would 
do well to look into this matter. It is of far more 
importance than the abstract questions of flogging or 
solitary confinement, or of any other mode of punish- 
ment ; for if the soldier found that he was treated as a 



88 BAKBADOS. 

human being, and that his feelings as a man, and his 
duties as a Christian, were respected and encouraged, 
there would be less occasion for either the lash or the 
halter. If necessary, I could appeal to the character 
and conduct of more than one regiment, in corrobora- 
tion of this opinion. 

In so large a body as 500 or 600 men, levied as 
our soldiers too generally are from the most dissipated 
classes of our community, there will always be some 
characters that can never be reformed ; but this I can 
affirm, from long and strict observation, that a humane 
and kind commanding officer, who shows that he 
respects the feelings, and perhaps the innocent preju- 
dices of his men, and shows a proper respect for both ; 
one who interests himself in their temporal comforts, 
and tries to secure for them religious instruction ; in 
fact, one who leads them, by all means within his 
power, to indulge in the feelings and aspirings of men 
and of Christians, will always have a well-conducted 
regiment ; and punishments, as a general measure, 
will soon cease to be necessary, and only to be called 
for on most extraordinary occasions. 

Whenever we can bring a man to have a proper 
respect for himself, that moment we have secured him 
against the commission of any heinous crime. But 
while our present colonial system remains in force, we 
do nothing to elevate the soldier's character, but much 



BA11BAD0S. 89 

to debase and brutify it. If the country is too poor 
to build a chapel for each of the garrisons of our 
several islands and colonies, the regiments are quite 
competent to do this, if allowed, for themselves ; and 
the very occupation would greatly improve their 
health as men, and secure their efficiency as soldiers. 
There is no regiment without a considerable number 
of artificers capable of raising such a structure as 
may be made a church, in the West Indies. And to 
what more eligible purpose can the stoppages made 
from the soldier's pay, on account of his misconduct, 
be applied, than to pay for a clergyman to labour 
regularly amongst them in holy things ? But why 
hint at such a paltry economy as this ? The British 
people are still able, and, if called upon, willing, to 
grant such a trifling addition to our military expen- 
diture, as will cover the addition of a chaplain to each 
regiment, or at least to eYery garrison, in our West 
India and other colonies. 

I now appeal to such of our senators as have taken 
an interest in the abolition of corporal punishment, 
and I call upon them to accomplish what I have 
recommended, and I will then assure them that they 
may cause all the " cats" in the army to be thrown 
into the fire, as they will never more be required as 
an instrument of discipline. But until they do accom- 
plish such a reformation, I avow and maintain, after 



90 BARBADOS. 

nearly thirty years' experience, and a most intimate 
acquaintance with the opinions and feelings of soldiers 
themselves, both while smarting under the punishment, 
and when all recollection of it might be supposed to 
have passed away from their minds, that flogging 

IS A FAR MORE HUMANE AND EFFICIENT PUNISH- 
MENT THAN ANY THAT THE INGENUITY OF THEO- 
RISING PHILOSOPHERS HAVE AS YET DISCOVERED OR 

recommended. In the British army, and it cannot 
be too often repeated, it is the crime and not 

THE PUNISHMENT THAT DEGRADES THE SOLDIER. I 

could mention some melancholy instances of the mis- 
chief done by the agitation of this question, — the 
effects it has produced upon the sentences of courts 
martial, and the conduct of commanding officers, who 
are too often at a loss how to act, and hesitate when the 
most firm and prompt decision is perhaps required to 
secure the safety of a whole regiment. I shall, however, 
only intrude upon the reader's notice one history, which 
strongly bears upon the point in question. 

Not long ago, a regiment arrived in the West 
Indies, and as fine a body of men as perhaps ever left 
the shores of Britain. The officers, all men of edu- 
cation, and gentlemen. The regiment had been 
recruited and organized after its return from the 
East Indies within the last few years, and when 
the circulars and declamations of itinerant orators, 



BARBADOS. 91 

and the voice of the Fourth Estate, were loudly 
proclaiming flogging as unlawful, and banishment for 
life a more than sufficient punishment for every mili- 
tary crime. Soldiers soon come to know the tone and 
bearing of public opinion ; and the wicked and incor- 
rigible will conduct themselves accordingly. In the 
regiment I have referred to, there was a fine young 
man, who finding the Indian-corn husk palliasse, and 
the myriads of bugs with which the barrack-beds were 
swarming, no great luxury by night, and that eight 
ounces of hard salt beef, or four ounces of salted pork, 
were no very nourishing or palatable food by day; 
and that his military duties and restraint were suffi- 
ciently irksome; concluded, and with some reason, 
that he would be much more comfortable, and far 
better provided for, as a convict in New South Wales, 
than he could ever expect to be as a private in His 

Majesty's Regiment, in the West Indies. To 

accomplish such a change, he resolved to do something 
that would ensure his being transported, either by the 
sentence of a court-martial, or by a commutation of 
punishment ; and accordingly, he seized the first 
opportunity he could meet with to insult, and I believe 
strike, his officer. He was tried by a general court- 
martial ; and in order to make sure of his object, was, 
as I was told, most insulting even to the court. There 
was no difficulty in proving his crime, and the sentence 
was that he should be shot. I have no doubt he 



92 BARBADOS. 

knew perfectly that he had incurred this awful penalty, 
but am also quite certain, that he supposed, from what 
he had seen and known of the effects of popular clamour 
in England, that no general officer would venture to 
carry such a sentence into execution. He was, how- 
ever, mistaken in this. It was declared that he must 
die ; and, after being allowed some days for prepa- 
ration, he was led through the ranks of nearly 2000 
men, made to kneel upon his coffin, and in a moment 
had his body pierced by a dozen balls, fired by his 
late boon companions and comrades. Owing to that 
uncertainty which for some time has prevailed, we 
have here a young man of twenty-one years of age 
sent to an untimely grave. Had he believed for a 
moment that the sentence of the court would have 
been allowed to take effect, he would never have been 
guilty of the crime for which he suffered*. 

This is a proper subject for senatorial declamation ; 
and one that calls for the attention of every man in 
whose bosom there- is one spark of philanthropy. All 
the prospective rewards for good conduct, and all the 
appeals that can be made to the feelings of the soldier, 
will never overcome his physical wants, or quench that 
craving for drink, which is far more distressing and 
overpowering than hunger itself, and as has been 
found, when not satisfied, has always ended in the most 
furious delirium and madness, and finally in death. 
* The soldier's own confession. 



BARBADOS. 93 

The climate, of itself so exhausting, naturally induces 
a craving- for liquids, but when we aggravate that 
craving a thousand-fold by the salted and dry food 
which we compel the soldier to live upon ; and when 
also, as in some of the colonies, we aggravate his 
sufferings still further by giving him a palliasse to lie 
upon, filled with the crude husks of the Indian corn- 
stalk, and swarming with vermin, — can we wonder 
that he should become irregular in his habits, and 
quite indifferent as to the consequences of his actions ? 
I have conversed with many respectable non-commis- 
sioned officers on this subject, and they have assured 
me, that when they had no opportunity of exchanging 
their salt provisions for fresh, and were from circum- 
stances compelled to live upon their rations, their 
Jives were so miserable that self-destruction was often 
contemplated. They could only mitigate their suffer- 
ings by drinking gallons of water during the day ; 
and then when the time arrived for going to bed, 
they tried to procure sleep or forgetfulness, by swallow- 
ing an enormous quantity of brandy or rum, or of 
whatever spirit they could procure. 

The common soldier, who has no character at stake, 
will drink the spirits, when they can be procured, with 
water or without it, at all times, by day or night, 
and hence the constant scenes of irregularity and 
drunkenness that are exhibited in every West India 



94 BARBADOS. 

garrison. But give the soldier fresh meat, and green 
succulent vegetables, instead of rice, and let him 
have tea instead of coffee or cocoa ; let him, in all 
situations, be provided with comfortable and clean 
beds ; let him have the consolations of religion in the 
house of God, and in his barrack-room ; let industry 
and even amusements be encouraged, nay enforced 
and provided ; — and then we may rest assured, that 
even the very worst characters in a regiment will 
become comparatively regular. There will seldom be 
occasion for any punishments whatever ; and, what is 
of far greater importance, sickness and death will 
less frequently make their appearance, even in colonies 
that have for time immemorial been considered as the 
certain grave of Europeans. 

In conclusion, I assert, and am ready to prove, that 
by acting as common sense and common humanity 
point out, not less than 50,000Z. of money might be 
saved annually in our colonial expenditure. I have 
been induced to express myself very fully and very 
freely on this subject, because it is one of paramount 
importance. It is one to which I have given my atten- 
tion for many years, and no one has a better opportunity 
of judging of the opinions and sentiments of soldiers 
than the attentive medical officer. But the time has 
arrived that I must take my departure from Barbados. 



95 

CHAPTER VII. 
BRITISH GUIANA. 

DEFARTURE FROM BARBADOS — ARRIVAL AT GEORGETOWN — 
EXTENT AND IMPORTANCE OF THE COLONY OF BRITISH 
GUIANA. 

On Monday, the 17th of March, 1834, I left the 
island of Barbados, and on Friday, the 21st of the 
same month, landed at Georgetown, in the colony of 
British Guiana. When the trade-winds blow from the 
north of east the passage has been made in sixty hours, 
or in less time, but in general it occupies three 
or four days. 

The colony or province now called " British 
Guiana," comprehends the whole of that territory on 
the coast of the South American continent which was 
originally colonized by the Dutch ; and what is rather 
singular, the Dutch now possess the only small portion 
of the same continent that was first colonized by the 
English, viz. Surinam. 

Under its new and now recognised appellation of 
" British Guiana," are comprehended the three distinct 
Dutch settlements or colonies, upon the banks of the 
rivers Berbice, Demerary, and Essequibo; a tract 
of country extending from the equator to nearly ten 



96 BRITISH GUIANA. 

degrees north, and stretching along the Atlantic Ocean 
for 200 and 300 miles ; from the banks of the Great 
Oronoko on the west, to the borders of the before- 
mentioned river or colony of Surinam on the east. 

The eastern boundary is the most southerly ; and 
at the extreme west, the soil deposited from the 
waters of the Oronoko causes the land to trend con- 
siderably to the north. Georgetown, the capital city 
of the province, stands on the banks of the river 
Demerary, near its mouth, and is as nearly as possible 
in the centre, between the two extreme points. British 
Guiana, therefore, forms a part of that extensive 
tract of country, stretching from the sea to the river- 
Amazon, which was first discovered by Columbus, 
and then designated Guyana, or Guiana, by the native 
Indians. This coast was afterwards visited by Sir 
Walter Raleigh, when in search of the El Dorado ; 
and, subsequently, the banks of its great rivers were 
taken possession of by European colonists, — Surinam, 
as already mentioned, by the English ; Berbice, 
Demerary, and Essequibo, by the Dutch ; the Oronoko, 
the Amazon, the Rio Negro, and others, by the 
Spaniards and Portuguese. A long line of coast, still 
more to the south than British or Dutch Guiana, 
belongs to the French. 

England, very soon after its settlement, exchanged 
the colony of Surinam for the Dutch settlement on the 




Jtouyuclulg & #> CfZ/obh/). Iiond/ow. 



BRITISH GUIANA. 97 

Hudson ; and after a lapse of nearly two centuries, 
the first remains still in the hands of the Dutch as a 
colony, struggling with poverty, while the last (the 
capital province of the American Union), flourishes as 
the state and city of New York. 

During the late revolutionary war, and when the 
French had converted Holland into a province of their 
mighty empire, Great Britain took possession of the 
Dutch West India colonies. But at the peace of 
Paris, in 1815, they were all restored to the King of 
the Netherlands, with the exception of the three which 
now constitute the province of " British Guiana." 
These were retained by Britain, and a price actually 
paid for them, notwithstanding that they had been 
conquered during the war. The coast-line of this 
rich and important colony, may, as I have stated, 
extend to a little more than 200 miles ; but its depth, 
or length inland, has not (so far as I am aware,) been 
as yet determined. One or two travellers do say, that 
they had penetrated so far to the south, that from the 
summit of the Cordilleras they could discern the 
South Atlantic Ocean ; and that from the said heights 
the waters parted north and south. Hence, some have 
conjectured that this is the southern boundary of 
British Guiana ; though its true latitude has neither 
been ascertained, nor is it at all stated in any work 
that I am aware of. My own opinion is, that our 



98 BRITISH GUIANA. 

territory extends to the banks of the Amazon, some 
degrees south of the equator. I may, however, safely 
affirm, that this country embraces many more acres 
of land than are contained in Great Britain and 
Ireland combined ; and is a far more valuable posses- 
sion than either Mexico or Peru, with their gold 
and silver mines, or even the Brazils, with all its 
diamonds to boot. Here we have a very different soil 
from that of Barbados, — a rich alluvial compost, 1 47 
feet in depth ; and quite inexhaustible, both as regards 
quantity and quality ; and which, as to cultivation 
and colonization, has limits that I may truly say are 
boundless. 

As yet a few patches only along the sea-coast, and 
on the banks of its three great rivers, have been 
subjected to cultivation ; and such are their produc- 
tiveness, that the exports of this colony are already 
nearly on a par with those of the large island of 
Jamaica, with its labouring population of more than 
300,000. If cultivation and population proceed and 
advance in any thing like the ratio they have lately 
done, it would be a matter of little import (in as far as 
sugar, rum, molasses, and coffee, and even cotton, are 
concerned), a few years hence, though all the islands 
in the Caribbean sea were returned to the bottom 
of that great deep. British Guiana could furnish a 
supply of these articles for the whole world, and for 



BRITISH GUIANA. 99 

10,000 years, and still have fresh soil to bring into 
cultivation. 

It is of the utmost importance to Great Britain that 
the attention of government, and of the whole commu- 
nity, and more especially of our merchant-kings and 
adventurers, should be drawn to and fixed upon this 
rich and invaluable colony ; for, were its resources 
truly known, its advantages duly appreciated, and its 
capabilities fully examined and explained, it would 
indeed soon become a wealthy state ; and Georgetown, 
already a crowded and flourishing sea-port, would 
rival, if not surpass, New York. Great capital is not 
even necessary, — it only requires labourers to till the 
ground ; and I am happy to have to state, that since 
the galling fetters of slavery have been removed, and 
the negro is allowed to bring his free services to the 
best market, many are flocking to this land of promise, 
where not only more comfort, but even wealth, may be 
speedily acquired, and where already free labour has 
raised in the last year more produce than slavery could 
ever obtain, by very nearly a million of pounds ster- 
ling in value. 



f 2 



100 



CHAPTER VIII. 
HISTORY OF THE COLONY. 

BERBICE THE FIRST SETTLEMENT THEN ESSEQUIBO AND 

DEMERAKA CONSOLIDATION OF THE THREE COLONIES IN 

BRITISH GUIANA THIS COLONY FORTUNATE IN ITS GO- 
VERNORS. 

It was about the year 1626 that a Mr. Van Peire, a 
wealthy merchant of Flushing, first sent ships to sail 
up the Berbice river, and began to establish a trade 
with the native Indians. But as early as 1580, the 
Zealanders had attempted to fix themselves on the 
banks of the Oronoko and Pomeroon rivers; and 
the same enterprising merchant, who began to explore 
the Berbice in 1626, had obtained permission to 
establish factories, and to traffic with the natives on 
these coasts in 1602. The Spaniards, however, be- 
coming jealous of the Hollander, drove Van Peire 
and his factories from their immediate neighbour- 
hood, and it was while in quest of a more quiet 
settlement that they sailed up the Berbice. 

Van Peire^ ships landed a number of adventurers, 
at a considerable distance from the mouth of the 
river, where they built a small fort for their security, 
while conducting their trade with the Indians. 



BRITISH GUIANA. 101 

These adventurers were no doubt considered by 
Van Peire as his servants, or factors, as they received 
all their support and supplies from his ships. It was 
much about the same time (1626) that some English 
ships sailed up the Surinam River, took possession of 
its banks, and there established themselves ; and it is 
evident that this colony must have been in great 
favour at home, for so early as 167^, not fifty years 
from the first settlement, when it was transferred to 
the Dutch, more than 2000 British colonists left it, and 
proceeded to Jamaica, then esteemed the true Land of 
Promise, and the most important of all the foreign 
possessions which England had ever acquired. 

By a grant from the States General, the Dutch 
West India Company became proprietors of all the 
American colonies that had either been conquered, or 
had been established by Holland in the New World. 
But as an inducement for others to imitate the liberal 
and enterprising conduct of Van Peire, of Flushing, 
this company conferred upon him all the rights, privi- 
leges, and powers, which they themselves had acquired 
over the colony of Berbice, a colony that had origi- 
nated with his factories on the coast. This grant took 
place in 1678. 

Surinam (which the said company had taken in 
exchange for New York), when it was deserted by the 
English, was found to be a losing concern. It was 



102 BRITISH GUIANA. 

therefore sold to the States General for 260,000 
guilders, and became national property. 

In 1669, the first permanent Dutch settlement was 
established on the banks of the Essequibo ; for though 
the Zealanders reported that they had a flourishing 
colony near the mouth of that river, before 1613, 
it appears that all their factories and establishments 
had been destroyed by the English in 1665. 

In forming their first permanent colonies, the Dutch 
were compelled to take up their position at a consider- 
able distance from the sea-coast, in consequence of the 
numerous Buccaneers, or pirates, that infested these 
seas ; and we always find, that the lands first cultivated 
were further inland than those now under crop, and 
that the first forts built for their protection have long 
been abandoned by their successors in these colonies. 
Colonization must have proceeded very slowly on the 
banks of the Essequibo, for we have no notice what- 
ever of its having advanced to the Demerary River 
(Rio de Mirara) till 1745, when the directors of the 
chamber of commerce of Zealand granted permission 
for one " Andrew Peiters" to lay out plantations upon 
its uninhabited banks. 

In 17475 more than a century from the first settle- 
ment on the Essequibo, the whole of the produce 
exported from that colony and from Demerara was 
only 559 half-hogsheads of sugar, which were carried 



BRITISH GUIANA. 103 

to Europe in two small schooners. About this date 
there must have been a great influx of labourers from 
the coast of Africa, as the cultivation on the Demerara 
coast increased rapidly. In 1748, 2292 hogsheads 
of sugar were exported. In 1752, cotton and coffee 
first began to be cultivated; but in that year only 
one bag of the latter, and one bale of the former, were 
shipped. For the next nine years, the cultivation of 
the sugar-cane was neglected, and the cotton and 
coffee-plants attended to. In 17^1, the sugar ex- 
ported was only 87b* hogsheads, while the cotton had 
increased to 28 bales, and the coffee to 45 tierces. 
After this date, the planters began to acquire wealth 
and enlarge their estates, and a very large increase 
took place in the number of slaves brought into the 
colony. 

In 1764, the total number of estates under cultivation 
on the banks of the Essequibo and Demerary Rivers 
was 130, and very few exceeded the original grant, 
which with the Dutch was always limited to about 250 
acres, English measure. These 130 estates produced 
this year 2956a hogsheads of sugar, 211 bags of 
coffee, and two bales of cotton, and required eight 
ships for their transport to Europe. In I768, the 
quantity of coffee exported was 2510 bags, and of 
cotton 66 bales. After 177^5 cotton rose in value, 
and was chiefly cultivated. In 377^? n °t ^ ess tnan 



104 BRITISH GUIANA. 

8613 bags and 181 bales were sent to Europe, while 
the sugars amounted only to 377^ hogsheads, and the 
coffee to 1001 tierces. 

It was in 177^ that the Courts of Policy, and of 
Civil and Criminal Justice, were first established in 
Demerara, and their meetings appointed to be held on 
an island about twenty miles up the river from the 
present capital. 

In 1775> the cotton raised in the colony was 19,090 
bags and 189 bales, the coffee 2317 tierces, and the 
sugar 4939 hogsheads. In 1777> coffee predominated, 
and not less than 1866 tierces, and 20,309 bags, of the 
berry were sent to Europe ; but it is not a matter of 
sufficient interest to the general reader to continue 
these statistics with the same minuteness. 

In 1781, Sir George Rodney, with the British 
fleet, took, possession of all the Dutch West India 
colonies, and Demerara and Essequibo were consi- 
dered the richest prizes of the whole. Berbice was 
not in so flourishing a condition as the other two. 
The planters had never recovered from the effects of 
the debt which they had been compelled to incur to 
prevent their estates from being totally destroyed by 
the French fleet in 1712, and, subsequently, of a 
revolt of their slaves in 1763, by which the whole 
colony was laid desolate, and the safety of the other 
colonies greatly endangered. These rebels could not 



BRITISH GUIANA. 105 

be subdued until a large reinforcement of troops 
arrived from Europe, and when, as is related, a 
general massacre ensued, so great and general, that, 
for many years afterwards, four or five small vessels 
were sufficient for the whole trade of Berbice. 

At the peace of 1783, the whole of these colonies 
were again restored to Holland, when they were 
almost immediately taken possession of by the French, 
who built forts on both shores of the River Demerary 
at its mouth, for the future protection, as they said, of 
the colony. In 1785, the Legislative and Judicial 
Courts of Demerara and Essequibo were united, and 
their meetings were directed to be held in future at 
Staarbroek, now Georgetown, the capital of Demerara. 

In 1787? a very serious conspiracy was organized 
amongst the negroes, which, fortunately, was dis- 
covered, and its fatal effects in a great measure pre- 
vented. 

Early in 1796, three British regiments of infantry 
were sent from Barbados to take possession of Deme- 
rara and Essequibo. The Dutch governor had very 
few European troops under his command, and his 
militia were by no means effective ; he therefore did 
not hesitate to capitulate on the first summons. Ge- 
neral Whyte, with his little band, took possession of 
the two colonies without firing a shot. 

The troops, on landing, were for the most part 



106 BRITISH GUIANA. 

quartered in the Fort William Frederick, one of those 
built by the French ; but the British officers preferred 
building cottages or huts for themselves without the 
walls of the fort ; and here they laid the foundation of 
that crowded, and now fashionable, district of George- 
town, still known as Kingstown. 

Under the protection of Great Britain, agriculture 
and commerce made rapid progress. British capital 
became united with Dutch industry, and fortunes 
were accumulated in less time than it would have 
taken to coin the amount in silver before the invention 
of steam. At the peace of Amiens, these valuable 
possessions were surrendered for a few months to what 
was then called the Batavian Republic; but were again, 
in 1804, retaken, as were also the other West India 
possessions belonging to Holland. From this period, 
to the present hour, the colonies of Berbice, Demerara, 
and Essequibo, have remained with us ; and their pos- 
session having been secured by treaty and purchase, 
as well as by conquest, they have now been incor- 
porated with the British Empire, as " the province 
of British Guiana." 

During our first occupancy of these colonies, in 
1781, it is evident that several natives of the British 
Isles had been induced to try their fortunes in South 
America. From 1796, and during the continuance of 
the war, the influx of adventurers from Scotland, and 



BRITISH GUIANA. 107 

from Ireland, must have been very great. The 
resources and the riches of this important province 
began for the first time to be fairly developed and 
appreciated ; and such was the effect of British capital 
and British enterprise, that, before we surrendered up 
possession to the Batavians, in 1 802, we had raised the 
exports, in the short space of six years, to 19,638 
hogsheads of sugar and 213 tierces — to 4887 pun- 
cheons of rum, 46,435 bales of cotton, and 9,954,610 
pounds of coffee, and 520 casks of molasses, requiring 
more than 400 vessels for their transport. 

The old Dutch laws, and the customs of Holland, 
were preserved to the colony by the terms of its 
capitulation, and in my opinion they have been very 
unnecessarily retained since it has become a British 
province de jure, as well as de facto. The circum- 
stance of its being, on the last occasion, taken posses- 
sion of avowedly for the purpose of saving it for the 
House of Orange, may have led our commander to 
guarantee these laws and customs, in all their original 
absurdity ; but as they have long ceased to be the 
laws of the mother country, why should they still be 
allowed to interfere with the progress of improvement ? 
It is owing to many of the obsolete customs still pre- 
served here, that the governors of the colony have been 
defeated in some of their best measures for its improve- 
ment. It is, however, most fortunate for the con- 



108 BRITISH GUIANA. 

tinued prosperity of British Guiana, that in every 
apparent crisis of its fate, since it became subject to the 
British crown, it has been under the management of 
able, experienced, and honourable men. 

During the last and most important period of its his- 
tory, and, indeed, of the history of all our slave colonies, 
the prudence, firmness, and sound discretion of one man, 
not only saved this state from utter ruin, or from being 
deluged with human blood, but by his straight-for- 
ward and upright conduct produced such an impres- 
sion throughout the colonies generally, that (though 
they may be loth to acknowledge it) had a most bene- 
ficial effect in restraining the over-heated zeal, calming 
the turbulent passions, and in removing the alarms, of 
less temperate and vacillating governors. 

If Sir James Carmichael Smyth had wavered for 
one moment in his plans, or allowed the clamour of the 
frightened proprietors of the soil, or the remonstrances 
of his council (not always very courteously offered), to 
sway his decision in a single instance, British Guiana, 
at this hour would have been in a very different 
condition. That industrious, sober, and religious 
coloured population, which we now see daily increas- 
ing in comforts and in numbers, would either have 
been destroyed by the sword and famine, or sent, wan- 
dering, in their original savage condition, to the far 
inland forests. It was stated at the time, and while 



BRITISH GUIANA 109 

yet party spirit and the clamour of the timid, the 
ignorant, and of the interested, would have over- 
powered the reason and good sense of almost any 
other man, and have forced him to adopt their mea- 
sures, — that the inhabitants of British Guiana would 
many of them live to bless him, who could act so wisely, 
and so well, under such trying circumstances: and 
already I can affirm, that almost all the liberal-minded 
proprietors of the soil are of the same opinion. 



110 



CHAPTER IX. 
THE PRESENT STATE OF BRITISH GUIANA. 

THE DUTCH PEOPLE SEVERE TASK-MASTERS CONDITION OF 

THE FIRST BRITISH COLONISTS INFLUENCED THEIR CHA- 
RACTER PREJUDICES OF THE PLANTERS THEIR OPPO- 
SITION TO THE MEASURES OF GOVERNMENT PRESENT IM- 
PROVED CONDITION OF ALL PARTIES — GREAT INCREASE OF 
PRODUCE FROM FREE LABOUR. 

It is uttering no calumny against the people of Hol- 
land (I speak not of them as individuals, but as a 
nation), to say that they have ever been considered 
and proved the most cruel and severe task-masters : if 
we look, however, beyond the mere surface of things, 
we shall probably find that their conduct in this 
respect has arisen from qualities highly estimable and 
praiseworthy in themselves, — that, most persevering, 
industrious, and punctual in all his duties, his dealings, 
and private transactions in business, the Hollander has 
no sympathy with the idle, the indolent, or dissipated, 
portion of his fellow-creatures. The Dutchman's sys- 
tem is to compel obedience to his orders and regula- 
tions, more by the severity of his punishments, than by 
any marks of his kindness, or any promises of reward . 
He was taught in youth that the very utmost stretch 
of human exertion, to accomplish what he was ordered 
to perform, was a right or duty which he owed to his 



BRITISH GUIANA. 



Ill 



parents and superiors ; and when he grew up, he felt 
that he had a claim to demand the same obedience 
from all his inferiors. Nature, therefore, had made 
him a very Jew in demanding the entire of his pound 
of flesh, and it is no difficult matter to account for 
the greater prevalence of Dutch feeling and Dutch 
practice amongst the British colonists in Guiana than 
in any other of our conquered possessions. 

The first generation of British adventurers had come 
to the country in the humble capacity of overseers, or 
book-keepers, to the Dutch planters ; they were there- 
fore trained up in the very worst system of the Dutch 
school, and commenced their labours and their instruc- 
tion, at a period of life when impressions, once made, 
generally prove lasting. They knew of no other 
system, and had no experience of any other practice, 
than that of the most abject and passive obedience, or 
the utmost rigour and severity of punishment. If, 
under this discipline themselves, they had become not 
only reconciled to it, but actually believed (as many still 
continue to believe) that it is the very best and the only 
system that ought to be followed in the management 
of slaves, or of any other description of the labouring 
population, — for with such men habit has become 
second nature, — we must not be surprised then that 
these men, now possessed of great wealth and ojggreat 
influence in the community (acquired, we must recol- 



112 BRITISH GUIANA. 

lect also, under their favourite system,) were most 
determined in their opposition to the new measures, or 
that their opinions were considered as oracular by all 
that were wishing to tread in their footsteps, or had 
hopes of succeeding to their estates. Had an angel 
from heaven announced to them, what plain common 
sense seemed to dictate to all others, that humanity 
and kind treatment were far better calculated to make 
the now freed slave a good and industrious citizen, 
than could ever be accomplished by the cart-whip or 
the cat-o'-nine-tails, these Patres conscripti would 
have sworn that the assertion was false, and they 
would have denounced the heavenly messenger as an 
enemy to the colony, and a calumniator of the colo- 
nists. The whole of their enmity and prejudice 
against the governor and his measures arose from their 
acquired Dutch feeling, and their limited knowledge 
of human nature. 

From the first moment that Sir James Carmichael 
Smyth took the command of the colony, he made it 
evident, that his determination was, to consider and to 
treat the negro as a fellow-creature, endowed with all 
the feelings and attributes of humanity. That how much 
soever these qualities might be obscured by ignorance, 
or perverted or destroyed by the galling chains of 
slavery, it was his duty as a Christian man, and the 
representative of the king of England, to endeavour to 



BRITISH GUIANA. llO 

restore and supply what was deficient, and to recover 
what had been lost, by that long continuance of a 
system as barbarous as it is unchristian, and certainly, 
as regarded personal interests, most impolitic. He 
made it known, officially and publicly, that he was 
firmly resolved to treat every individual, of whatever 
colour or capacity, as all equal in the eye of the law. 
He stated that the best way of convincing the negro, 
that on the removal of that chain which was about to 
take place, (and which had so long galled him as a 
slave,) he would in every respect be treated as a free- 
born British subject, was to commence at as early 
a period as possible, to treat him with kindness and 
some consideration. 

Immediately on his arrival in the colony, Sir James 
Carmichael Smyth issued a proclamation (No. I. *), 
which he caused to be read and fully explained to the 
slaves. This was followed by a second (No. II.*), but 
on the propriety of dealing thus openly with the negro 
population, the Governor and some of the leading 
members of his council were completely at issue. 

As members of the Court of Policy, and as planters 
in British Guiana, they pretended to argue, from their 
long and intimate acquaintance with the negro cha- 
racter, and their perfect knowledge of the habits 

* These documents are printed at the end of the present 
chapter. 



114 BRITISH GUIANA. 

and dispositions of the black and coloured population 
of their own colony, and they maintained, that nothing 
but the dread of the most severe corporal punishment 
could ever make them industrious or dutiful. The 
Governor, on the contrary, relied upon a more 
extensive acquaintance with human nature than the 
colonists possessed, and his greater intercourse with 
men of all nations and of all colours ; and referred to 
the opinions of the most enlightened men, of every 
age, to prove, that though the terrors of the law 
ought never to be lost sight of, and that the infliction 
of physical pain might sometimes prove a salutary 
remedy, yet neither the one nor the other was much 
calculated to humanize the species, or improve the 
moral qualities of the sufferers. 

In proportion to the limited space in which a 
man moves, so will his narrow-mindedness and pre- 
judices obtain strength; and when we consider, that 
the civilized, or white population of Demerara, till of 
late, never exceeded 1000 or 1200 souls, and that 
many of these were of a rank in life not likely to add 
much to the enlightenment of society, it may easily be 
believed, that such circumscribed intercourse was more 
likely to confirm bad habits, and strengthen long- 
cherished prejudices, than to improve and enlarge the 
human understanding. If we consider, also, the 
relative condition of the employer and the emnloved. 



BRITISH GUIANA. 115 

— the one the uncontrolled owner and disposer of 
the body of the other; and that other compelled 
to submit, both in body and mind, to the whims, 
caprices, as well as reasonable commands, of his master 
or tyrant, — I use the latter term is no bad sense, 
and without reference to any class of men ; I only 
consider slave-owner and tyrant as sj'nonymous terms. 
A man cannot be the one without becoming the 
other ; and from what I have seen of slavery and its 
consequences, I am satisfied that it has proved far 
more degrading and debasing, and far more preju- 
dicial to the white master, than it has ever been to the 
black slave. If, therefore, we duly consider these 
several matters in detail, we cannot be surprised at the 
opposition which the governor met with, when his 
general measures were first made known. Faction 
might aggravate that opposition, but undoubtedly, 
many excellent and worthy men believed, most consci- 
entiously, that Sir James Carmichael Smyth was wrong 
in showing so much consideration and regard for the 
interests of the negro population, and so much respect 
for their feelings. These men acted upon principle, 
and were guided by their fixed opinions ; opinions, 
however, arising entirely from the very circumstances 
of their situation. 

The extraordinary facility with which the human 
mind becomes hardened under certain circumstances, 



116 BRITISH GUIANA. 

and from the constant witnessing of scenes debasing 
and cruel, is one of those anomalies which philo- 
sophy may find it difficult to explain in theory, 
but which is nevertheless true in practice. It is an 
old remark, that by the constant repetition of a 
falsehood, the soundest mind will, in process of time, 
come to regard it as a truth ; so, by constantly 
witnessing the same system continued, we very soon 
come to consider the slightest deviation from that 
system as certainly leading to utter ruin. I there- 
fore, in charity, would attribute to their prejudices, 
rather than their principles, the violence and the 
opposition which the Governor met with in Deme- 
rara, — so perseveringly carried on ; and which, at one 
time, was sufficient to have turned the firmest mind 
from its purposes. I am, therefore, most happy 
to be enabled to add, that it has nearly ceased. 
Already, the great body of the planters, and every 
honest man in the colony, are becoming convinced 
that they were mistaken in many things and misled in 
others. Tranquillity has long been fully established ; 
indeed, I might say, it was never interrupted. The 
gathering in the Essequibo, of which such horrible 
accounts were transmitted to England, and which 
succeeded for a short time in creating some alarm, 
and in raising the price of sugars, was a very ill- 
concocted and clumsily got-up affair, altogether ridi- 



BRITISH GUIANA. 117 

culous ; and only tended to show, that those who did 
contrive it, were as weak as they were worthless, and 
quite unequal to the task of exciting a rebellion, 
even amongst ignorant and prejudiced negroes. It 
did, however, frighten a planter or two, and alarm 
their female relatives. 

The aristocracy of British Guiana are kind and 
hospitable in their houses, and most friendly and 
obliging, so long as the stranger does not disregard 
their prejudices, or question the correctness of their 
judgment and conduct as regards their sable brethren ; 
but let him attempt to do either, and he will find the 
land of mud no fit soil for him to inhabit. 

The great majority of the colonists are Scotchmen, 
or the descendants of Scotchmen. The Dutch planters 
have nearly all disappeared. There are a few wealthy 
and respectable proprietors from Ireland, as well 
as England ; but by far the largest proportion of the 
wealth and influence of the colony is vested in Scotch- 
men. Most enormous fortunes have been realised 
in British Guiana, and with a facility scarcely credi- 
ble ; but I regret to have to add, that there are not 
many instances in which estates as yet have come 
down entire to the third generation. I have heard it 
remarked in the colony, by more than one, that all 
who came to it with wealth, and had purchased 
estates on their arrival, were reduced to poverty ; 



118 BRITISH GUIANA. 

while those who came in poverty, had acquired, many 
of them, unbounded wealth. Some of the richest 
proprietors of the present day, came to the colony 
within the last thirty years, as merchants'' clerks, or 
overseers, and with no other property than the clothes 
they wore. Scotch economy, and Scotch industry, were 
never more successfully exerted than in Demerara ; 
and being in manners and feelings already half-Dutch, 
they easily amalgamated with the original settlers, and 
appear very quietly to have stept into their places. 

The great drawback upon colonial property for 
many years past, has arisen from the power of dicta- 
tion which the mercantile houses in Europe had 
acquired over almost all the West India proprietors, 
and the actual possession which they had obtained 
of many of their estates. These acquired properties 
were superintended by agents, who had none but 
a personal interest in the amount of their produce ; 
and provided that could be pushed to the greatest 
extent from year to year, without reference to any 
future improvements or future advantages, they cared 
but little for the interests of either proprietors or 
slaves. Buildings were allowed to go into decay ; 
cultivation was forced, but not improved ; and at the 
present time, there are a great many valuable proper- 
ties that have been abandoned, or turned into grazing- 
farms. 



BRITISH GUIANA. 119 

But in addition to the evils to be expected, where 
absent masters have to trust, as in this case, en- 
tirely to fallible servants, another great check upon 
the prosperity of the colonies arose from the fear 
created by ignorance, and strengthened by intrigue. 
The merchants were made to believe, that the sword 
of destruction was always hanging over their heads. 
If any resident proprietor, of education and expe- 
rience, ventured in a single instance to deviate from 
the common routine of his ignorant ancestors (however 
certain and beneficial the result might be in the 
improvement of his property, and increase of his 
income), the moment such a proceeding reached the 
ears of his creditors, — and almost every estate latterly 
had become more or less mortgaged, and there was 
always some agent on the spot to communicate this 
information to the mortgagee, — that moment a most 
peremptory order was sent out to stop all innovation, 
or take the consequences ; which implied, that he 
must be prepared to pay up the mortgage, or have it 
foreclosed, and his property brought to the hammer. 
There are some instances, even in this province, where 
matters have been carried to that extremity; and 
properties have been sold for one-third or one-half of 
their real value. 

It is not, however, to record transactions that do so 
little credit to human nature, that I have thus alluded 



120 BRITISH GUIANA. 

to them ; but merely to point out one of the chief diffi- 
culties which the colonists have had to struggle with 
for many years past, and which effectually put a 
stop to every species of improvement ; and that it 
may stand as a contrast to the present state of matters ; 
when, most happily for all parties, such proceedings 
can no longer take place. The late blessed change in 
the condition of the labouring population, and the 
sum which Great Britain has paid to accomplish that 
change, and as a measure of justice to those who, taking 
the most favourable view of the case, were temporary 
sufferers, have enabled almost all the proprietors to pay 
off the whole or the greater part of their debt. They 
have now recovered their free agency, and may 
manage and improve their estates in accordance with 
the progress of sound knowledge, and the greater 
facilities afforded by free labour. They have the 
power of increasing or diminishing the number of 
their labourers, according to circumstances, and to 
pay only for that which is productive ; and such 
is already the flourishing state of British Guiana 
under this system, that the exports in 1835-6, exceed 
those of 1834-5, by 11,356 hogsheads, 883 tierces, 
and 530 barrels, of sugar ; 'JWS puncheons, 966 hogs- 
heads, and 27 barrels, of rum ; and 747,234 pounds of 
coffee. The following is the return for three years, 
as certified by the Collector of his Majesty's Customs, 



BRITISH GUIANA. 



121 



Copy of Returns received from the Collector and Comptroller 
of the Demerary and Essequibo District, and from the 
Acting Collector and Comptroller of Berbice District. 


i 


Sugar. 


Rum. 


Hhds. 


Trs. 


Brls. 


Puns. 


Hhds. 


Brls. 


1836 

1835 


63,900 
52,544 


4,059 
3,176 


4,496 
3,956 


23,6591 
16,551 


6,230 
5,264 


1,491 
1,464 


Increase 

Decrease 


11,356 


883 


540 


7,108 


966 


27 





Molasses. 


Cotton. 


i 
Coffee. 




Casks. 


.Bales. 


Pounds. 


1836 

1835 


27,160 
33,398 


2,319 
3,376 


3,278,930 
2,531,700 


| Increase 


6,238 


1^057 


747,230 


Decrease 


1 

British Guiana, H. E. F. Young, 
29^ January, 1836. ■ Gov. Sec. 



It is also of importance to state, that while industry 
has increased, crime has diminished ; and that, in a 
population of nearly 73,000 individuals, not more than 
twenty-one were sentenced to receive corporal punish- 
ment in the month of December, 1835 ; and I venture 
to add, that not one-half of that number will be 
found to have suffered such chastisement in December, 
1836, 

G 



122 BRITISH GUIANA, 

This very favourable and satisfactory result of 
the great measure of slave emancipation, has not 
been accomplished without great exertions, and some 
anxiety, on the part of all concerned in the working of 
the details. One of the first preliminary arrange- 
ments adopted by Sir James Carmichael Smyth, (and 
some time before the Act should come into operation,) 
was, to direct a committee of the most experienced 
Planters of the colony to draw up a scale of work, 
which, according to their j udgment, every able-bodied 
labourer, of either sex, might be capable of performing 
in the number of hours they were bound to work for 
the benefit of their employers. This was done with 
great care, and made to comprise every kind of labour 
to be done on an estate. 

The number of hours, as limited by the Act, which 
the apprentice is bound to work for his master, is 
seven and a half per diem, or forty-five hours in six 
days. It was, however, thought prudent to leave it 
open for the master and the apprentice to arrange by 
mutual agreement, whether these forty-five hours 
should be completed by working nine hours daily for 
five days, or that they should conform to the letter 
of the law, and work regularly for the whole six 
days. But from this discretionary power having been 
left to the parties themselves, there have arisen more 
quarrels, complaints, and disagreeable interferences, 



BRITISH GUIANA. 123 

than it is possible to imagine. Some managers would 
not condescend to enter into any terms with their 
labourers, far less agree to those which the labourers 
wished ; — they would adhere to the letter of the law ; 
but, in order to harass and annoy, they would not allow 
the seven hours and a half to be consumed in regular 
succession, as had always been the custom, with the 
short intermissions for meals ; but when the people had 
completed one-half of their time in the forenoon, they 
were dismissed, and not called together again until late 
in the afternoon. Instead, therefore, of having a couple 
of hours to dispose of, or to work for their own benefit, 
the people were in this way kept unsettled for the whole 
day. Such conduct, of course, led to discontent. 
The labourers, in their turn, combined to oppose the 
managers. The work was either not done at all, or 
slovenly and ill-performed ; and, had there not been a 
watchful and strict master over all, this very omission 
of regulating by ordinance the hours of labour, would 
often have led to serious disturbances. 

The silly and ridiculous methods resorted to, by a 
few weak-minded and ignorant managers, to punish, 
or rather to irritate, their negro labourers, were 
sometimes the most childish and absurd, but, at the 
same time, they were calculated to excite feelings of 
discontent and revenge. It was only the perfect 
confidence which they already had in the impartial 

g 2 



124 BRITISH GUIANA. 

justice of the Governor, that kept the irritated 
population from breaking out into acts of serious 
insubordination. Such, however, was their confidence 
in the humanity and just dealing of the King's 
Representative, that in no one instance did they attempt 
to redress their own wrongs. They carried their 
complaints to the Governor, where they were listened 
to and carefully investigated, and equal justice dealt 
to all parties. 

If the negro was wrong, he was made sensible of his 
error, by explanations which he could fully understand. 
If the master was in fault, he was punished in such a 
way as to give complete satisfaction to the complaining 
party. This was a manner of dealing with the labouring 
population which a few of the planters either could not 
or would not understand. But their opposition, though 
backed by all the invective and personal abuse of their 
party press, was found to be unavailing. Sir James 
Carmichael Smyth pursued the even tenor of his 
straight-forward course, and in the end was victorious. 

Long previous to the 1st of August, 1834, he had 
prepared a well-digested and comprehensive code of 
regulations and directions, for the guidance of the 
stipendiary magistrates expected from England. The 
province was divided into well-defined districts, and, 
as the magistrates arrived, they were allowed to select 
their districts from the number that remained unfilled 



BRITISH GUIANA. 125 

up. Thus, the first that arrived had his choice of the 
whole, and the next in succession, of all but that 
which the first had chosen. If, however, any one got 
into confusion afterwards, or any unusual irritation or 
excitement was found to exist in his district, that 
magistrate was instantly removed, and another, more 
energetic, or more conciliating, was sent to take his 
place. 

The quantity and the quality of the food which 
the planter was bound to provide for the daily 
sustenance of his labourers, had been regulated by 
ordinance during the government of Sir Benjamin 
D'Urban, and upon a scale recommended by Doctor 
M'Turk, a gentleman w r ell acquainted with the sub- 
ject, both as a planter and physician, and whose 
humane and good feelings had led him to make it 
so sufficiently liberal for a slave population, that little 
alteration, — indeed, I believe, none, — was found neces- 
sary, when it was adopted as the ration of the appren- 
ticed labourer. 

When the special j ustices got into error, or appeared 
remiss in the discharge of their duty, they were 
privately admonished ; and whenever a difficulty or 
a doubt occurred, they were instructed by private 
circulars, or authorized by public orders ; and what- 
ever required to be regulated by ordinance, was 
instantly brought before the Court of Policy, and 



126 BRITISH GUIANA. 

received their consideration and sanction. Throughout 
the whole struggle, and the confusion which, notwith- 
standing every precaution, so great a change was 
certain of producing, the Governor has continued 
to possess the most perfect confidence of the coloured 
population. He acquired that confidence, as I have 
shown, by dealing openly and honestly with them from 
the very commencement, and continuing to do so up to 
the present hour. No complaint, however trivial, has 
ever been left unattended to ; — no grievance, however 
exaggerated, or statement, however absurd, that has 
not been listened to, and the complainant made sensible 
that he was in error, or that he would receive 
justice; and so promptly was that justice rendered, 
that at last the most suspicious, and even the most 
prejudiced, can no longer doubt of the impartial 
proceedings of their good and humane Governor. 

Sir James Smyth's firmness and impartiality were 
such, that he not only dismissed from the commission 
of the peace some of the most wealthy and influential 
men in the colony, but caused their dismissal to be 
published in the Gazette, and merely because they had 
taken upon themselves to sanction measures which 
savoured of injustice, and of that bias and party feeling 
which was so openly shown in former times, when the 
interests of the white man came into collision with 
those of the negro, 



127 



No.I. 

By his Excellency Major-General Sir James Carmichael 
Smyth, Bart., Companion of the Most Honourable 
the Military Order of the Bath, Knight Commander 
of the Royal Order of Hanover, Knight of the Austrian 
Imperial Order of Maria Theresa, Knight of the Russian 
Order of St. Waldimir, Lieutenant-Governor and Com- 
mander-in-Chief in and over the Colony of British 
Guiana, Vice-Admiral and Ordinary of the same, 
&c, &c, &c. 
I v/as only sworn yesterday into the high and important 
office which His Majesty has thought proper to entrust into 
my hands, and you may judge yourselves, by my losing so 
little time in addressing you after my arrival, of the value I 
attach to your welfare and happiness. 

You are all of you aware, that it is the intention of the 
King, and of the People of England, that your situations shall 
be improved. What those improvements may be, are as yet 
under consideration. You may rely upon my word, that 
whatever orders concerning you are received by me, they shall 
forthwith be made known to you ; and it will be my duty to 
carry those orders punctually into execution. I wish to warn 
you, however, against all impatience, disobedience to your 
masters, absence from your duties, insubordination, rioting, 
or illegally assembling. The peace and tranquillity of the 
country must be maintained ; and if you adopt any other 
conduct than that which becomes peaceable and obedient 
subjects, you will compel me, however unwillingly, to employ 
force to uphold the existing laws. Remain quietly and peace- 
ably, therefore, at your several employments, and you may 
rely with confidence upon my communicating to you whatever 
changes may be ordered from England for your advantage. 

I have been told, that some foolish people among you 
imagine that they are to be made free altogether ; by which 



128 BRITISH GUIANA. 

they understand that they are not to be required to perform 
any more work. Be assured, my friends, that this is a very 
great mistake, and which can only lead to discontent and 
disappointment. Every man in this world is required to work 
in some way or other ; and, by the command of the Almighty 
Father of us all, we must all and each of us acquire our bread 
with the sweat of our brow. In what manner it may be 
decided that your situations shall be improved, no person in 
this colony can, at present, truly tell you. Be assured, 
however, that moderate labour will be expected and exacted 
from every one. 

I trust that you will seriously consider and reflect on what 
I have said, and conduct yourselves accordingly. Your old 
people must see the great changes and improvements which 
have been effected within a few years in the state of the 
slaves. Do not you, by impatience and improper conduct, 
force his Majesty's Government to go backwards instead 
of forwards, in regulating the connexion and the nature of 
the duties to be severally performed by your masters and 
yourselves. 

It is my intention, as soon as I can find sufficient leisure, 
to visit every part of the colony ; and it will afford me the 
greatest pleasure to find you all happily and busily employed 
at the different estates, and to hear from your own lips, that 
whatever improvements you, in your several situations, may 
be desirous to obtain, yet that you are convinced that it is 
only by your good conduct that you can expect to induce the 
King, and the People of England, to take further interest in 
your welfare. 

Given under my Hand and Seal, at the King's House, in 
Georgetown, Demerary, this 27th day of June, 1833, and 
in the fourth year of His Majesty's reign. 

God Save the King. 

By his Excellency's command, 

T. C. Hammill, 

Assist. Gov. Sec. 



129 



No. II. 

In a Proclamation which I addressed to you about three 
months ago, I told you that whatever orders I received from 
the King about you I would immediately communicate to 
you, and that you might depend upon my carrying them 
punctually into execution. I warned you of the necessity of 
your continuing to conduct yourselves quietly; of steadily 
performing your work; and of yielding to your Masters a 
cheerful and a ready obedience. I am happy to say that you 
have followed my advice ; you have conducted yourselves as 
well as could have been wished. This country never was hap- 
pier or quieter. You have shown to the world that you are 
worthy of the great sacrifice of money the people of England 
have agreed to give your Masters for your freedom. I thank 
you for your good conduct. Listen now to the orders which 
our great and good King has sent to me about you. You will 
find that every thing that could be thought of to render you 
happy and industrious has been attended to. 

1. You are to continue as you are until the 1st of August 
next. This delay is necessary to enable the Justices of the 
Peace (under whose care and superintendence you are to be 
more particularly placed) to be selected, and to be sent here 
from England. On the 1st of August next you are to be no 
longer Slaves, but Apprenticed Labourers. The difference 
between a Slave and an Apprenticed Labourer is very much 
in your favour. A Master is, by Law, entitled to require his 
Slave to work nine hours per day, fifty-four hours per week : an 
Apprenticed Labourer can only be called upon to work at the 
rate of seven and a half hours per day, or forty-five hours 
per week. You gain, consequently, as soon as you are 
Apprenticed Labourers at once nine hours per week, in 
which you can work or do anything for yourself. The Master 
of a Slave can order his Slave to be punished. The Master 
of an Apprenticed Labourer will have no such power over his 

G 2 



130 BRITISH GUIANA. 

Apprentice ; but if he has any fault to find, he will have to 
complain to a Justice of the Peace, whose duty it will he to 
listen patiently, to examine witnesses, and to write down care- 
fully all the particulars of the story, as related both by the 
Master and the Apprenticed Labourer before he gives judg- 
ment. These judgments must, moreover, be laid from time 
to time before me ; and if any Justice of the Peace abuses his 
authority, or acts with partiality, or under the influence of 
passion, or in any way shows himself unworthy of the high 
trust committed to his charge, you may depend upon his being 
immediately removed. You see, therefore, the great advan- 
tages you will derive from being Apprenticed Labourers 
instead of Slaves. 

2. However much your situations will be improved, and 
your happiness and comforts augmented, by being made 
Apprenticed Labourers instead of Slaves, yet it is further 
intended that in a few years you shall be perfectly Free, and 
at liberty to engage yourselves with any Master, or gain your 
livelihood in any way you may think proper. The King has 
ordered that you are to be Apprenticed Labourers only from 
the 1st of next August until the 1st of August of the year 
1840, which is but six years of Apprenticeship. On the 1st of 
August, 1840, you will be as free as any white man. 

3. I have said to you that the Master is by Law entitled to 
fifty-four hours per week of labour from his Slave, and that 
from the Apprenticed Labourer he will only be entitled to 
forty-five hours per week. There are, however, many do- 
mestic Slaves employed about a house, and many mechanics 
and artificers, who do not work in the field, but who are 
required to give up more of their time to their Master. A list 
of these people will be carefully made ; and it is the King's 
orders that, as they give up a greater portion of their time for 
the use and advantage of their Master than the Slave who 
merely works at his lawful hours in the field, so they should 
receive a recompense, by being entitled to their freedom at an 
earlier period. A list of all Slaves employed as I have 



British guiana. 131 

described will be made out, and on the 1st of August next 
they are to be called Non-Prsedial Apprenticed Labourers ; 
and they can receive their complete freedom on the 1st of 
August, 1838, that is, two years before their comrades. 

4. You are now fully acquainted with the King's orders, and 
with everything that is to be done with respect to you. I 
trust you will return to your work quietly, happily, and cheer- 
fully ; and that in your prayers you will not fail to return your 
humble and sincere thanks to Almighty God, in whose 
hands are the hearts of Kings, for having thus opened the 
door, and prepared to lead you from the House of Bondage. 
The wisest and ablest of men never anticipated that such a 
great and a blessed change could have been effected in your 
favour but at a remote period, and even then accompanied 
with bloodshed. Let me urge you for your own sakes, now 
that you are aware of all the good that is intended for you, to 
prove yourselves worthy of the blessings of freedom ; and in 
all matters, and upon all occasions, to show yourselves loyal 
and obedient subjects of that truly paternal Government to 
which you owe so much. 

Given under my Hand and Seal of office, at the King's 
House in Georgetown, Demerary, this 2d day of October, 
1833, and in the fourth year of His Majesty's reign. 
God save the King. 

By his Excellency's command, 

T. C. Hammill, 

Act. Gov. Sec. 



132 



CHAPTER X. 

CIVIL CONSTITUTION, COURTS OF JUSTICE, &c. 

UNION OF THE COLONIES DURING THE PRESENT REIGN— SIR 
B. D'URBAN, FIRST GOVERNOR-GENERAL — DUTCH LAWS AND 
DUTCH FORMS STILL PREVAIL — CIVIL GOVERNMENT — 
COURT OF POLICY — HOW FORMED — COMBINED COURT — 
HIGH COURTS OF CIVIL AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE — INFERIOR 
COURTS. 

Previous to 1832, Berbice continued to be a sepa- 
rate and distinct colony from the previously united 
colonies of Demerara and Essequibo. It had its own 
chief magistrate (a Lieutenant-Governor), its Civil 
and Criminal Courts, its own peculiar laws and 
customs, and its own current money. 

His present Majesty, — who understands our colonial 
affairs better than most men, — has a perfect and per- 
sonal knowledge of the whole of our West India posses- 
sions, and has given much consideration to the measures 
upon which, in a great degree, the prosperity of these 
possessions must ever depend,— was pleased, soon after 
his accession, to direct the consolidation of the whole 
provinces, and to order that in all acts and deeds 
they should in future be known and recognised as 
British Guiana. Major-General Sir Benjamin 



BRITISH GUIANA. 133 

D'Urban, a most able and excellent man, and long 
known as a brave and gallant soldier, was the first 
Governor-General of these united provinces. 

I am anxious to put on record this fact, because the 
future history of these colonies will become a matter of 
far greater importance than their past has been ; and 
the men who have contributed to lay the foundation 
of their boundless prosperity upon so sure a basis, will 
have their memories honoured and revered, as are the 
Washingtons and Franklins of a more northern division 
of the same continent. 

The Dutch laws and customs, as they existed in 
1803, were maintained in all their integrity till three 
or four years ago. They were more curious as a 
specimen of the folly, absurdity, and corruption, of the 
Continental lawyers of the middle ages, than beneficial 
to the colonists. Some of the forms of proceeding in 
the high courts of Civil and Criminal Justice had 
been ruled so early as 1570, by the then States of 
Holland and West Friesland. Measures, however, 
have since been adopted, and others are in progress, 
for establishing the full exercise of the British laws, 
and British practice ; and when these are completed, 
little more will be required to consolidate the union, 
or increase the prosperity, of these colonies. 

The idea of maintaining, as Dutch law, in this 
remote colony, that which is no longer acknowledged 



134 BEtTlSH GtJIANA. 

as the law in Holland, is too absurd to merit a 
moment's consideration ; and yet there are men in 
Demerara who think that any change, even in these 
matters, ought to be deprecated. 

At the present moment, the civil government of 
the province is vested in the Governor and Court of 
Policy, according to forms established by the States- 
General of Holland, long previous to our acquiring 
the possession ; and these have full power and autho- 
rity to enact, ordain, and establish, such laws and 
ordinances as they may deem proper for the preserva- 
tion of the peace and good government of the whole 
community. This supreme court, or parliament, of 
the province, as at present constituted, consists of 
the Governor, the Chief- Justice, the High-sheriff, the 
Attorney-general, and the Sheriff of Essequibo, ew 
officiis, and five gentlemen elected, who are deno- 
minated the colonial members. It would appear the 
Dutch were anxious to have it believed that there 
was some mystery or confusion, even in a matter so 
very simple as the election of five men to sit in this 
Court of Policy. It was declared by the original 
statute, that every proprietor of twenty-five slaves 
should have a vote in the election, — not of the colonial 
members, mark me, — but of seven gentlemen, who, 
in the Dutch language, were called Keisers-^-now 
styled electors, with whom the choice of the colonial 



BRITISH GUIANA. 135 

representatives remained, — -that is, they could nominate 
two candidates, from which the Court must select one 
as the sitting member. 

This is a matter requiring the attention of the Home 
Government, for, since the 1st of August, 1834, and 
according to my reading of the law, not one election of 
Keiser, or colonial representative, can be considered 
valid. As slavery then ceased to exist, and as the only 
qualification to vote was, the person declaring upon oath 
that he was in possession of twenty-five slaves, some 
other qualification of property must be established ; 
and when that qualification is fixed, why have recourse 
to a complication of machinery, when a more simple 
process may be adopted ? Instead of the qualified 
voters choosing seven electors, who in their turn are to 
select two candidates to be returned to the Court of 
Policy, who again are to elect one of these to fill 
the vacancy, they ought at once to return the members 
of the Court. 

In the progress of improvement, and of better 
legislation, there has lately been added to the Court 
of Policy, a court or college, consisting of six indivi- 
duals, called Financial Representatives, and who, 
in the discussion of all matters of taxation, sit with, 
and seem to have a concurrent jurisdiction with the 
Supreme Court: this is called the Combined Court. 
These financial representatives were chosen also by 



136 BRITISH GUIANA. 

the proprietors of twenty-five slaves, the only qualifi- 
cation of property. Many reforms, however, are still 
absolutely necessary, and must soon be effected ; for 
at present it is difficult to understand what is the law, 
and what is not. 

In some matters the proclamation of the Governor 
has the force of law: — thus, the Governor had the 
power of ordering the 1st of August, 1834, to 
be kept as a day of thanksgiving throughout the 
whole extent of the colony, and could command the 
ministers of religion to perform Divine service in all 
their churches and chapels ; but it was only with the 
advice and consent of the Court of Policy that he 
could pass an Act to release the labourers from toil 
on that day, or that they could be permitted to attend 
their churches. 

Independent of his having a casting vote in the 
decision of all matters under discussion in the Court 
of Policy, the Governor has an absolute veto on all 
laws and ordinances that may be passed by a majority 
of the members. No ordinance can have the effect of 
law until it has his approval. The Court of Policy 
decide on all financial as well as fiscal regulations; 
but -when they have examined the charges, and decided 
on the sum total to be raised by taxation, the accounts 
are handed over to the financial representatives, who 
are to fix upon the articles to be taxed, and the 



BRITISH GUIANA. 137 

amount to be raised on each article, whether of export 
or import. When their regulations are approved of 
and sanctioned, by what is called the Combined Court, 
they are passed into a law. 

The financial representatives are chosen for two 
years: the members of the college of electors are 
chosen for life; but the colonial members of the 
Court of Policy go out by rotation, and sit only for 
three years. Though one or more must vacate his 
seat every year, they may be re-elected immediately. 
They are therefore, to all intents and purposes, fix- 
tures, if they have interest enough to carry their 
elections, and would wish to be considered as the 
actual and legitimate rulers of the state. 

A British governor, with an enlightened mind, and 
a good heart, who does not confine his views to selfish 
or partial measures, but, while endeavouring to carry 
into effect the orders of the King, is desirous, at the 
same time, of being really useful to the colony over 
which he presides, — who takes a larger or more 
comprehensive view of the prospective interests of the 
whole community than the narrow-minded prejudices 
of many of the colonists will allow them to do, — and 
who is anxious to institute measures and ordinances, 
and to procure laws, likely to promote such views, has, 
almost always, (I am sorry to say,) been opposed, and, 
in as far as they could carry matters, thwarted and 



138 BRITISH GUIANA. 

annoyed, by some of the colonial members of this 
Court of Policy. Under their local influence, the 
community have too frequently been encouraged to 
condemn all government measures as imbecile, and 
most ruinous to the colony. It requires, therefore, no 
ordinary firmness of mind, with integrity of purpose, 
to bear up against such attacks, carried on as they 
are in so limited a population, and with all the rancour 
of political enmity ; and (where personal vanity has been 
touched) with all the bitterness of wounded pride and 
personal hatred. 

In consulting the history of the colony, ever since 
it became a British possession, I find that the moment 
any governor showed a determination to think and 
act for himself, the contest against him became per- 
sonal, rather than political, and the cry was, " He 
must be got rid of." There was therefore nothing 
new or extraordinary in the conduct of the present 
colonial representatives towards their able and most 
excellent Governor, or in their opposition to his humane 
regulations, except, perhaps, the perseverance and 
malignity of their personal attacks. 

The Supreme Court of Civil Justice in British 
Guiana is composed of a chief-justice, formerly called 
the President, and two puisne judges, — a secretary of 
the chief-justice, a registrar, and a sworn accountant. 
All causes for civil actions, and for debt, are heard, in 



BRITISH GUIANA. 139 

the first instance, before one of the judges, in what is 
called the Rolls' Court, and are decided upon by 
him in a report to the whole court. That court either 
confirms or rejects this judge's decision, or rather, I 
should say, his report; for the proceedings in this 
Rolls' Court partake more of the nature cf what, in 
Scotch law, is called a precognition, or a preparation 
for the cause to be heard and decided upon by the whole 
court, than they do of any actual interlocator, or legal 
decision. From the decision of the Supreme Court an 
appeal lies to the King in Council, provided the cause 
of action shall exceed the value of five hundred pounds 
sterling. 

All the laws of Holland, particularly all the laws, 
statutes, and resolutions (says the constitution), of the 
States-General, and especially all the ordinances of 
their High Mightinesses, or the Committee of Ten, 
with the approbation of the States-General, are to be 
followed by the judges of the court in giving judg- 
ment. This order is still allowed to remain upon the 
statute-books. In my opinion, the laws of England, 
without any further delay, ought to be declared 
the law of the colony. If this is necessary in civil 
matters, it is much more so as regards the constitution 
and practice of the supreme court of Criminal Justice. 

This court is composed of the three judges of 
the Civil Court, and of three gentlemen, drawn by 



140 BRITISH GUIANA. 

ballot from the box, in which the names of all 
the gentlemen of the colony who may have been 
summoned previous to the opening of the session 
to serve as Assessors, are deposited by the clerk of 
the court. These Assessors, or assistant judges, sit 
on the bench, and the six decide, by the majority 
of their votes, on the guilt or innocence of the party 
accused. 

All the gentlemen of the colony qualified to serve as 
Assessors, are registered, as in England in the case of 
jurymen ; and, previous to the commencement of each 
session of the Supreme Criminal Court, a certain 
number are summoned to be in attendance, under 
heavy penalties, and nothing but certified sickness can 
be admitted as an excuse. At the opening of the 
court the list is called over, and those who are in 
attendance have their names written each on a sepa- 
rate slip of paper, which, as I have said, are thrown 
into a ballot-box. When the first trial is ready to 
commence, three of these slips are drawn from the box 
by the clerk of the court, who reads the names aloud, 
and if the prisoner has no challenge against any of the 
three gentlemen first drawn, they are immediately 
sworn, and take their seats with the judges, as asses- 
sors for that trial, and for that trial only. Every 
accused person has the right of peremptory challenge 
to a certain extent, and cannot be called upon to assign 



BRITISH GUIANA. 141 

any reason : afterwards, he may challenge for reasons 
to be assigned. 

The Order in Council by which this court was 
instituted after the present form, states expressly, 
" that the assessors shall be liable to be challenged on 
such and the like grounds as may be alleged as lawful 
grounds of challenge against any petit juror impan- 
elled for the trial of any indictment in England, and 
that the validity of every such challenge shall be 
decided by the judges presiding at any such trial, 
without the concurrence or interference of such asses- 
sors, or any of them." 

When sentence is pronounced, the opinion of each 
individual upon the bench, whether judge or assessor, 
must be given in open court ; and his vote of guilty 
or not guilty publicly recorded. When the court is 
equally divided, the casting vote rests with the chief- 
justice. In times of public excitement, and in cases 
where matters of great importance are involved and 
mixed up with political feelings, it is perfectly impos- 
sible for any accused party (if obnoxious to the ruling 
faction of the moment,) to get a fair or impartial trial, 
or have a just sentence. Men depending upon the good 
opinion and support of their fellow-citizens, are not 
always of that firmness of nerve which will enable 
them to say, " Fiat justitia ruat coelum !" They will 
find many excuses for coinciding with what they know 



142 BRITISH GUIANA. 

to be the opinion of the majority ; if, indeed, they did 
not, they would find the colony no longer a place for 
them to reside in. It might happen, also, that men 
in very dependant situations, such as merchants' clerks, 
and others of that class, would be called upon to 
award the punishment of death to persons of the high- 
est respectability in the colony, and against whom the 
employers and patrons of these humble classes might 
have publicly expressed their enmity and hatred. If 
ever radical reform was necessary in any public insti- 
tution, it is in this court ; and nothing but the establish- 
ment of trial by jury, as in England, can cure the 
rottenness and corruption of its whole constitution. 

There are many men of great talents, and sound 
learning, now practising at the bar of the Supreme 
Courts in British Guiana ; but when we consider the 
still narrow bounds of society, and that bitterness of 
party feeling, which brings every man and woman of 
that society within its vortex, we cannot be surprised 
that there is seldom any scope given for a display of 
forensic eloquence, or that any cases occur requiring 
a very extended developement of their legal or general 
knowledge. Most of the cases that do occur are taken 
up as party squabbles, rather than causes of public 
importance ; and yet there are men at the Demerara 
bar who would do honour to any bar in Europe, and 
it would perhaps have been well for the colony, if the 



BRITISH GUIANA. 143 

bench had been always as distinguished for talent and 
discretion as the bar. 

Inferior criminal courts are held by the high-sheriff 
of the province at Georgetown, the capital, and in 
Essequibo and Berbice by the sheriffs of these districts. 
These courts consist of the sheriffs, as chairmen, and 
a certain number of magistrates, and they can decide 
on all cases of petty larceny and misdemeanors ; but 
in many instances the sheriff, as in Scotland, is the sole 
judge. 

In this, as in all the other colonies, certain tribu- 
nals have been erected by the Act which dissolved 
slavery, and over which special magistrates were 
appointed to preside. It is entirely owing to the strict 
and impartial manner in which the law has been admi- 
nistered in British Guiana by these magistrates, under 
the ever-watchful eye of the Governor, that the great 
change has been made to pass over them as a matter of 
little or no importance, and only felt in the greater 
happiness and industry which it has produced. 



144 



CHAPTER XI. 
RELIGION, AND THE CHURCH ESTABLISHMENT. 

COLONY REMAINED LONG WITHOUT A CHURCH — ST. GEORGE'S 

FIRST BUILT ST. ANDREW'S NEXT — COLONY DIVIDED INTO 

PARISHES INADEQUACY OF THE PRESENT ESTABLISHMENT 

RESPECTABILITY AND USEFULNESS OF THE MISSIONARIES 

EXERTIONS OF THE PLANTERS GREAT BRITAIN URGENTLY 

CALLED UPON TO ASSIST IN THE GOOD CAUSE. 

Notwithstanding the enormous wealth acquired by 
thousands, and the uninterrupted prosperity of the 
colonies now united as British Guiana, for a long- 
series of years, they afford a striking proof of the utter 
impossibility of our being able to serve God and 
Mammon. It was not till the year of our redemption 
1810, that a regular temple was built, in which the 
people could meet to worship the living God, or 
that any provision was made for the performance 
of Divine service at Georgetown. Even then, the 
building that was consecrated and set apart for reli- 
gious worship, according to the ritual of the Church 
of England, had more the resemblance of a barn 
than a church. It was, however, named St. George's 
church. 

I have already stated, that a large proportion of 



BRITISH GUIANA. 145 

the white inhabitants of British Guiana are natives, 
or descendants of natives, of North Britain ; yet it 
was not till 1819, that they bethought themselves of 
building a Kirk, wherein they might praise the Lord 
after the manner of their pious forefathers. When, 
however, this was resolved upon, they raised a very 
splendid and commodious building. 

It was not till the first day of May, 1826, that an 
ordinance was passed for the encouragement of reli- 
gious instruction, and the preservation of the pure and 
holy faith of the Gospel in this land ; for so I consider 
that ordinance, which enacts, that " Whereas his 
Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, and Court of 
Policy, have deemed it expedient to divide the united 
colony of Demerara and Essequibo into ten separate 
and distinct parishes, they are henceforward to be 
so divided and named accordingly ? There are now 
twelve parishes ; I shall, therefore, endeavour to give 
the reader some account of each. 

No. 1, St. George's parish. This is the mother- 
church of the colony; and comprehends within its 
bounds the whole of Georgetown, and several large 
estates in its immediate neighbourhood. It contains a 
population of nearly 14,000 souls ; and there is only 
one clergyman, and scarcely accommodation for 500 
persons in the church. 

No. 2, called St. Andrew's parish, is supposed to 

H 



146 BRITISH GUIANA. 

comprehend all those of the Presbyterian faith who 
reside within the bounds of St. George's parish. In 
fact, these two parishes are confined to the same 
district, and are bounded by the same limits. St. 
Andrew's church will accommodate 1200 persons. 
There is only one officiating minister ; and therefore, 
all the provision that has as yet been made by the 
Government for the religious and moral instruction of 
from 14,000 to 15,000 souls, is two churches, with 
accommodation for 1700 persons; and two ministers, 
who have other important and onerous duties to attend 
o. Great, therefore, would have been the desolation 
of this fruitful land, had not good men, of various 
denominations, stepped in, and taken upon themselves 
in some measure the instruction of the Africans. 

Men, not only of great piety, but of sound learn- 
ing, have latterly been sent out to this colony as 
missionaries ; and the benefits which they have already 
conferred upon the whole community are great indeed, 
and will prove lasting. 

Lord Stanley carried the great measure through 
Parliament in a most able and statesmanlike manner, 
and many wished that he might continue to watch 
over the arrangements it was supposed he had had 
so large a share in preparing. But party politics are 
more powerful than ever were the waters of Lethe. 
He no sooner left the cabinet, than he apparently lost 



BRITISH GUIANA. 147 

sight of all that concerned the future interests of his 
coloured brethren, — interests, both civil and religious, 
which had previously occupied so much of his atten- 
tion. Fortunately for the happiness of the colonies, 
Mr. Spring Rice, endowed with equal energy, and 
certainly not less talent, succeeded his lordship ; and 
the good sense, and sound judgment, with which he 
explained doubts, and overcame difficulties, made the 
first movements of the machine more safe and steady 
than they would otherwise have been. Lord Aberdeen, 
too, brought his amiable and powerful mind to bear 
upon the subject with great effect. He confirmed all, 
and improved and extended many, of Mr. Spring 
Rice's arrangements ; and it is most gratifying to have 
to state, that Lord Glenelg, who succeeded Lord 
Aberdeen, has carried on, in the same spirit of justice 
and humanity, the system established by his able 
predecessors; and in all his decisions and directions 
on colonial arrangements, has shown a most intimate 
knowledge of human nature, and acquaintance with 
the circumstances which generally influence the conduct 
and characters of men. He has been indefatigable in 
promoting the religious and moral instruction of the 
people throughout all the colonies, as well as in this, and 
has afforded every facility for the settlement of preachers 
and teachers among the labouring population. 

The emancipation, or liberty, which was granted to 

h 2 



148 



BRITISH GUIANA. 



the negroes, by the Act of the British Legislature, was 
a blessing which their limited understandings could 
neither appreciate nor enjoy. It is, therefore, our 
first duty, as Christian men, to have them properly and 
carefully instructed in the precepts of that Gospel 
which teaches them their duty to God as well as 
to man, and which alone can free their souls from the 
slavery of sin and death. Slavery, as we know, is 
incompatible with the lights of reason and religion ; and 
had the sum which was paid for the fast-decaying fetters 
that lately bound the body of the African negro in our 
western colonies, been given to remove the dark cloud 
of ignorance from his a soul, by the establishment of 
ministers and teachers amongst them, we might, without 
much anxiety, have left the rusty fragments to their 
natural decay. I am quite satisfied, however, that 
things are better as they are ; for while the slave was 
allowed to exist, it was the duty of the master, by 
every means in his power, to prevent his being 
instructed ; but now it is equally his duty, that he 
should be well and properly instructed. It is highly 
creditable to the Planters of British Guiana, and I 
record the fact with more pleasure than I can express, 
that almost every respectable proprietor has endowed 
and established a school upon his own property, 
and shown the utmost liberality and zeal in furthering 
the good work of the missionaries, and in encouraging 



BRITISH GUIANA. 149 

the spread of the Gospel. But no wise government 
will ever leave the education of a whole people to the 
casual charity of missionary societies, or even to the 
enlightened and generous feelings of the wealthy 
members of the community. No state, however well 
established, can long prosper, where the rulers are 
so ignorant of, or indifferent to, that solid foundation, 
upon which alone society can be firmly established. 

The legislators of British Guiana have shown great 
wisdom in the arrangements they have made with 
regard to the Church Establishment of the colony. 
They have placed the Episcopal and Presbyterian 
forms of church government upon a perfect equality ; 
and have shown by their conduct, that they considered 
the state bound, also, to provide for the spiritual 
instruction of their Roman Catholic brethren. 

In addition to St.George^s and St. Andrew's churches, 
there has been also built a Roman Catholic chapel 
in Georgetown ; whose minister is placed upon the 
same footing, as to salary, as the ministers of the 
Protestant establishments. He has the same allow- 
ance from the Court of Policy. 

No. 3, the parish of St. Paul, which forms the 
suburbs of the capital, stretches along the east coast 
to a distance of twenty-five miles. It has a population 
of more than 8000 apprenticed labourers, with 1000 
whites and free persons of colour. Yet the spiritual 



150 BRITISH GUIANA. 

wants of this extensive district and large population 
are supplied by one church and one clergyman, as 
nothing further has been provided by the state. 
Private charity has, however, in some measure, made 
up for the deficiency. 

No. 4, is called St. Mary's parish. It is the most 
easterly of the colony of Demerary; and extends 
from the village of " Mahaica" to the " Abary 
Creek? including all the plantations on the Mahaica 
and Mahaicony rivers. In this parish are compre- 
hended 120 estates, with a population of 6000 or 
7000 apprenticed labourers, and about 500 whites 
and free people of colour. The proprietors of this 
district being for the most part Presbyterians, it was 
declared by the ordinance, that the incumbent should 
always be a member of the Church of Scotland. 

No. 5, is the parish of St. Matthew. This parish 
adjoins the capital, on the west side ; and comprehends 
all the estates on the east bank of the Demerara 
river ; extending as far as the cultivation reaches, and 
including the settlements on the great canal marked 
No. 3 in the colonial plans. There are between 
5000 and 6000 apprenticed labourers in this parish, 
and between 1200 and 1500 Europeans and free 
persons of colour. There is only one parish church, 
and one established clergyman. 

No. 6, is the parish of St. Mark. This parish 



BRITISH GUIANA. 151 

comprehends all the estates on the western branch of 
the Demerary river, from Plantation Windenburg, to 
the farthest extent of cultivation, with the settlements 
on the canals marked 1 and 2 on the plan. There are 
upwards of ninety separate estates , with 4000 appren- 
ticed labourers, and nearly 300 white and coloured 
persons. The great extent of this district would 
require six parish churches, instead of one. The 
incumbent of this parish must always be a member of 
the Scotch Church. 

No. 7? is named the parish of St. Swithin ; and 
extends from the west bank of the Demerary river, 
along the sea coast, towards the Essequibo. It is not 
of so great an extent of surface as the last, but the 
negro population exceeds 4000, and the white and 
coloured inhabitants are above 500. The established 
clergyman is of the Church of England. 

No. 8, is the parish of St. Luke ; and extends 
along the sea coast, from the boundary of St. Swithin, 
to the eastern bank of the Essequibo. It compre- 
hends forty separate estates; with a population of 
5000 apprenticed labourers, and about 300 Europeans 
and free persons of colour. This is a Scotch parish. 

No. 9, parish of St. Peter. This parish compre- 
hends the two islands of Leguan and Hog Island, 
near the mouth of the Essequibo river ; is one of the 
most fertile districts in the colony ; divided into thirty 



152 BRITISH GUIANA. 

separate estates, and containing a population of nearly 
6000 apprenticed labourers, and perhaps 300 Euro- 
peans and free persons of colour. This parish belongs 
to the Church of England. 

No. 10, parish of St. James. This is a parish of 
the Church of Scotland. It comprehends the islands 
of Wakenam and Troolie, on the Essequibo river ; is 
divided into twenty-nine separate estates, and has 
a population of about 4000 apprenticed labourers, 
and perhaps 200 whites and free people of colour. 

No. 11, parish of St. John. This parish extends 
from the Supenam creek to Capouey, on the west 
bank of the Essequibo river, and includes Tiger 
Island. There are within its boundaries thirty eight 
separate plantations, with a population of about 3500 
apprenticed labourers, and perhaps 100 whites and 
free persons of colour. 

No. 12, parish of the Trinity. This parish extends 
from Capouey creek to the Pomeroon river; and 
includes all the settlements on the west of the Esse- 
quibo. It comprises thirty-five cultivated estates, and 
a population of nearly 8000 apprenticed labourers, 
with 300 or 400 whites and free people of colour. 

When it was only considered necessary to provide 
for the spiritual wants of the white inhabitants of a 
colony, and the negroes were thought too degraded a 
race to be admitted to a knowledge of the Gospel, as 



BRITISH GUIANA. 153 

was actually avowed, as I have stated, when Barbados 
was first settled, it might be all very well to throw 
such large districts of country into a parish. But the 
wise men of British Guiana can never, I am sure, 
reconcile it to their consciences, or think that, in 1826, 
they had provided for the religious instruction of 
100,000 souls, by building twelve churches, and 
endowing twelve clergymen ; yet, in this respect, they 
have done more than any other colony in the West 
Indies. They complain, and with justice, of the bad 
faith of the mother-country in this respect. 

There is in existence a despatch from the late 
Lord Bathurst, and a vote of Parliament stands 
also recorded, " that whatever sum might be raised 
by the colony for the building of churches, an 
equal sum would be granted by the House of Com- 
mons." All the churches that have hitherto been 
built, have been at the sole charge of the colony; for 
as yet, not one sixpence has the Parliament granted. 
Something, however, must be done; and if a sum, 
equal to what has already been expended by the 
colony, — as the Government, upon the promise of 
Lord Bathurst, is bound to give, — is remitted to 
British Guiana, there will be very little difficulty in 
raising a sum in addition, sufficient to build all the 
churches, numerous as they may appear, which I shall 
venture to recommend. And besides, when the parishes 

h 5 



154 BRITISH GUIANA. 

are restricted to a reasonable size, the inhabitants will 
be found both able and willing to contribute to 
whatever allowance may be granted from the public 
funds, a sum sufficient to make the annual stipend of 
their ministers respectable, and such as the expenses of 
the colony demand. 

The free labourer, when he finds he can have 
accommodation in his parish church, and meets with 
that respect which good conduct and rational piety 
will always merit, will cease to contribute to the 
support of the missionaries, and will gladly give his 
mite to support his regularly-constituted minister. 
Were a large body of educated and pious men intro- 
duced into the colony, as ministers of the Gospel, and 
were established schoolmasters fixed in every parish, a 
powerful and sufficient check would be formed against 
either illegal or tyrannical proceedings on the part of 
the planters towards their labourers, or of disrespect 
on the part of the labourers towards their masters. 
A tone would be given to the manners and feelings of 
the community at large which they never yet have 
had, or, indeed, can have, without that civilization 
which religion and piety bring with them. These 
ministers of the Gospel would be a sure pledge that 
the labourer did his duty to his employer ; for where 
they found only eye-service towards the master, they 
might be certain there was little regard for their duty 






BRITISH GUIANA. 155 

to God. 1 3 therefore, implore all in authority, and all 
who have the power of remonstrating against procras- 
tination, or of representing the true state of the case, 
to be up and doing, for now is the appointed time ; 
now are we called upon to regulate, and that effectu- 
ally, matters which so essentially concern the temporal, 
not less than the eternal, welfare of all that dwell in 
the British colonies in the West Indies. 

There is only one church for the whole district of 
Berbice, but a second is now in progress, and I hope 
will soon be finished. A very elegant and commodious 
church has just been built in Georgetown, by private 
subscription, and there are several chapels belonging 
to the Church of England, that have been built, and 
are supported, by private contributions ; but I must 
again say, that unless the missionary societies had 
lent their powerful aid, this colony would, indeed, 
have been a barren land. The good and excellent 
Bishop of Barbados has not neglected this corner of 
his vineyard. His zealous and unwearied exertions 
and representations having succeeded in getting a 
liberal grant, from the present government, for the 
support of schools in the colonies, British Guiana 
has received its due proportion of that grant. 

The clergymen of the Church of England are, 
for the most part, men of sound learning and true 
piety ; zealous and faithful ministers of the Gospel. 



156 BRITISH GUIANA. 

The example and the exhortations of the good Bishop 
have produced a wonderful change in the characters 
and conduct of the regular clergy ; not only in 
Demerara, but, as I have already stated, throughout 
the whole of his diocese. It is deeply to be regretted, 
that the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland 
has not given or procured for those members of her body 
that are scattered throughout the Caribbean archipe- 
lago, some regular form or system of government, ana- 
lagous to that of the national establishment ; a govern- 
ment which would enable that body to scrutinise the 
characters and capabilities of those who may acquire 
livings in the West Indies. Even in British Guiana, 
where they have been placed upon a perfect equality 
with the Church of England, there is no regularly-con- 
stituted ecclesiastical court, to take cognisance of any 
irregularity or misbehaviour on the part of any of the 
ministers. They are altogether independent of each 
other, and subject to no church-censure whatever; and, 
notwithstanding the great respectability and superior 
attainments of many of the Presbyterian clergymen, 
they are, as a body, inferior in some respects to those 
of the Church of England; and I would say, less 
zealous, until of late, in the discharge of their spiritual 
duties. But it is to the strong mind, the good heart, 
and the sound religious principles of Sir James Car- 
michael Smyth that British Guiana owes all that she 



BRITISH GUIANA. 157 

now enjoys of quiet, prosperity, happiness, and of reli- 
gious improvement ; and with respect to all of these, 
few countries are now so blessed. 

By giving his countenance and support to the 
ministers and teachers of religion, by punishing the 
evil-doer and praising them that did well, by a judi- 
cious distribution of prizes, medals, and rewards, 
amongst the children in the schools, and by large 
advances of money from his own pocket for the 
support of these schools and of their teachers, he has 
created a spirit of emulation, which already has pro- 
duced the most beneficial effects, and must eventually 
secure the permanent prosperity and happiness of 
all classes of the community. Already the marriage 
state has been made honourable, and desired by all. 
That promiscuous intercourse of the sexes, and the 
debasing system of concubinage, which were so con- 
trary to the laws of God and man, have almost entirely 
disappeared ; and he who now countenances either, is 
scarcely tolerated in respectable society. 

Nothing can be more satisfactory than the progress 
which the negro population have made in religious 
and moral improvement, and if their wants were fully 
supplied, they would soon become an enlightened and a 
moral people. But in order to supply these wants, the 
capital, Georgetown, ought to be divided into eight 
parishes, and have at least a dozen established schools. 



158 BRITISH GUIANA. 

St. Paurs would form five or six parishes, St. Mary's 
affords scope for four additional churches, St. Mat- 
thew's for five, and St. Mark's for not less than six. 
Three additional churches are required for the district 
of St. Swithin, and not less than five for the parish of 
St. Luke ; St. Peter demands four, St. James three, 
and St. John four, while the parish or district of 
Trinity would require six churches and twelve schools 
to supply the necessary wants of the population. If, 
as I have already stated, Great Britain will only build 
the churches and school-houses, the colonists will find 
little difficulty in raising the money for the support of 
the clergy and schoolmasters. This, before I have 
finished, will be a long chapter ; but the subject- 
matter is of the most vital importance, not only to 
British Guiana, but to all the British colonies. 

The total population of British Guiana does not 
as yet exceed 100,000 souls, and of that number 
scarcely 4,000 are white ; and not more than one- 
third of these are females. In the coloured and free 
black population, amounting to nearly 8,000, the 
females are as two-thirds and the males only one- 
third ; while, in the class of apprenticed labourers, the 
males exceed the females by about one- tenth. 

One of the first measures recommended by the pre- 
sent Governor was to abrogate the old law of marriage, 
which made it almost impossible for either slave or 



BRITISH GUIANA. 159 

freedman to enter into the bonds of wedlock, unless he 
had acquired an independence. The fees were calcu- 
lated at so high a rate that it was quite impossible for 
a slave to think of marrying. I find that, so early as 
the 16th of May, 1834, directions were given to the 
Attorney-general to prepare a bill or ordinance for 
regulating the law of marriage, and reducing the fees 
to a mere trifle. This wise and truly Christian mea- 
sure was passed by the Court of Policy, and became 
the law long previous to the 1st of August of that 
year, when slavery ceased. With the amendments 
which the first ordinance has since received, it is now 
calculated to produce both virtuous and honourable 
feelings amongst the labouring population ; — to lead 
them to become regular and industrious citizens, 
and faithful and attached husbands and wives, and 
affectionate parents. 

In corroboration of what I have said with regard 
to the progress already made in the religious and 
moral improvement of the labouring population in 
this important colony, I add here a copy of the 
ordinance for the more strict and religious observ- 
ance of the Sabbath-day, and of official returns for 
the quarters ending 30th June, and 30th September, 
1836. 



160 BRITISH GUIANA. 



AN ORDINANCE 

TO ENSURE A BETTER OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH-DAY, 
AND OTHERWISE TO PROMOTE HABITS OF MORALITY AND 
DECENCY. 

To all to whom these Presents do, may, or shall come, 
Greeting ; he it known : — 

Whereas it is necessary that provision should he made hy 
law for the more strict and religious ohservance of the Sab- 
bath-day than has hitherto prevailed in the Province of 
British Guiana : 

1. Be it therefore enacted, by His Excellency the Lieu- 
tenant-Governor, Major-General Sir James Carmichael 
Smyth, Baronet, by and with the advice and consent of the 
Court of Policy of British Guiana, that, from and after the 
publication of this Ordinance, it shall not be lawful for any 
person or persons to hire, engage, or employ in his, her, or 
their service any mechanic, labourer, or other working person 
to perform any work or labour in his, her, or their service, 
between the hours of twelve o'clock upon the Saturday night 
and twelve o'clock at night upon the following Sunday ; and 
any person or persons committing a breach or violation of 
this regulation shall, for every such person so hired or 
employed, become liable to a penalty of not more than five 
pounds, or seventy guilders, and not less than five shillings, or 
three guilders ten stivers : Provided nevertheless, that nothing 
herein contained shall extend, or be construed to extend, to 
any domestic work or labour which may be performed on any 
Sunday by any person or persons employed as a domestic or 
menial servant. * 

2. And be it further enacted, that any mechanic or trades- 
man publicly working in Georgetown, or New Amsterdam, on 
the Sabbath-day, whether upon his own account or for any 
other person or persons, shall become liable to a penalty of not 



BRITISH GUIANA. 161 

more than one pound sterling, or fourteen guilders, nor less 
than five shillings sterling, or three guilders ten stivers, to be 
recovered in the manner hereinafter prescribed. 

3. And be it, and it is hereby enacted, that nothing herein 
contained shall prevent the employment of any labourer or 
other person upon the Sabbath-day in any work of necessity, 
to prevent or correct, or remedy the effects of any fire, flood, 
hurricane, or tempest, or other such like casualty ; and pro- 
vided, that nothing herein contained shall extend, or be 
construed to extend, to prevent the picking of cotton or coffee 
on Sunday, in cases where the crop is likely to be lost if not 
immediately secured, nor the turning thereof on the droghery 
to prevent the same being heated or spoiled, nor to persons 
employed in boats, punts, or other colony-craft of any descrip- 
tion, nor to the shipping of any produce, nor to persons 
employed in tending cattle or other live-stock, nor to 
watchmen. 

4. And be it enacted, that nothing herein contained shall 
extend, or be construed to extend, to interfere with an Act 
passed by the Lieutenant-Governor and Court of Policy of 
Demerary and Essequibo, on the 20th of August, 1828, for 
the regulation of the Ferry of the River Demerary, and the 
Steam-boat thereof, or with the regulations in force for the 
other Ferries throughout British Guiana. 

5. And be it further enacted, that it shall not be lawful to 
open upon the Sabbath-day, in any part of British Guiana, 
any store, shop, or warehouse, for the sale of any goods, com- 
modities, or merchandise ; nor shall it be lawful for any person 
or persons to expose for sale or to barter upon the Sabbath- 
day any goods of any description in any part of the colony ; 
and any person or persons committing a breach or violation 
of this regulation shall become liable, for every such breach, 
to a penalty of not more than five pounds sterling, or seventy 
guilders, nor less than two pounds sterling, or twenty-eight 
guilders: Provided nevertheless, that nothing herein con- 
tained shall extend, or be construed to extend, to prevent the 



162 BKIT1SH GUIANA. 

sale of medicines in any store or shop, or of provisions for 
consumption in any inns, taverns, or victualling-houses on 
Sunday, nor to prevent the sale of bread, meat, fish, fruit, or 
vegetables, at any time before or after the hours set apart for 
the celebration of Divine service. 

6. And be it further enacted, that wherever there is, at the 
date of publication of this Ordinance, or shall be hereafter, in 
British Guiana, any market, established by competent autho- 
rity, there shall be, at half-past nine o'clock on the morning of 
each and every Sunday, a bell rung by the clerk of the market, 
or by some person to be for that special duty appointed by the 
sheriff of the respective districts, which ringing of the bell 
shall be considered as a warning, calling upon all persons 
assembled at any such market to disperse ; and any person 
who shall continue present at such market after such warning 
as aforesaid, or shall return thither for the purpose of traffic 
of any kind or description, shall, upon conviction of any such 
offence, become liable to a penalty of not more than two 
pounds, or twenty-eight guilders, nor less than five shillings 
sterling, or three guilders ten stivers. 

7. And be it further enacted, that if any person or persons 
shall publicly curse or swear, or make use of violent, indecent, 
or obscene language, or shall publicly expose their person in 
any indecent manner, or use any indecent gestures, such 
person shall, upon conviction, be liable to a penalty not 
exceeding three pounds sterling, or forty-two guilders, and not 
less than five shillings, or three guilders ten stivers. 

8. And be it further enacted, that henceforth it shall not 
be lawful for any male or female, other than infants under the 
age of five years, to appear in public without being sufficiently 
and decently clothed ; and no male or female above the age 
of five years shall be considered to be sufficiently and decently 
clothed, unless the female be habited at the least in a shift and 
petticoat, and the male in a shirt and pair of trowsers, or other 
clothing, to the satisfaction of the sheriff; and any person or 
persons offending against this enactment shall, upon convic- 



BRITISH GUIANA. 163 

tion thereof, be liable to a penalty of not more than one pound 
ten shillings sterling, or twenty-one guilders, nor less than five 
shillings, or three guilders ten sfivers ; which penalty shall be 
recoverable and enforced against the parent or parents of ail 
persons above five and under sixteen years of age committing 
a violation of this Ordinance, unless such parent or parents 
make it appear to the satisfaction of the sheriff before whom 
the offence is tried, that the offender or offenders are of them- 
selves of sufficient ability to provide the necessary wearing 
apparel hereinbefore required and described : Provided that, 
wherever the person or persons required to be clothed in the 
manner aforesaid shall be an apprenticed labourer or labour- 
ers, or other person or persons entitled by law to be clothed by 
his, her, or their employer or employers, such penalty shall 
not be enforced against any such apprenticed labourer or' 
labourers, or other person or persons entitled to be clthed as 
aforesaid, if he, she, or they shall make it appear to the satis- 
tion of the sheriff before whom the offender shall be tried, 
that the wearing apparel to which he, she, or they are by law 
entitled, has not been supplied. 

9. And be it further enacted, that the regulations relative 
to clothing in this Ordinance contained, shall not extend, or 
be construed to extend, to any labourer or labourers upon any 
estates working in the trenches, while actually so employed, 
nor whilst going to and returning from the field, nor whilst 
engaged in labour in the field. 

10. And be it further enacted, that any person or persons 
committing a breach or violation of any of the regulations con- 
tained in this Ordinance, shall and maybe prosecuted before the 
sheriffs of the respective districts in British Guiana ; and in 
case of conviction of any offender before any such sheriff, one- 
half of the penalty incurred by any such offender shall, if 
recovered, be disposed of at the discretion of the sheriff in 
such proportion, between the colonial chest and the informer, 
as the high-sheriff shall consider expedient ; and in case of 
non-payment, it shall and may be lawful for the sheriffs 



164 



BRITISH GUIANA. 



aforesaid to adjudge any such convicted offender to imprison- 
ment, with or without hard labour, for any number of days 
not exceeding six days, unless the penalty be sooner paid. 

11. And be it enacted, that all prosecutions under this 
Ordinance shall be commenced within fourteen days after the 
offence committed, and not otherwise. 

12. And be it enacted,/that this Ordinance shall be in force 
from and after the 1st day of September dext. 

And that no ignorance shall be pretended of this our Ordi- 
nance, these Presents shall be printed and published in the 
customary manner. 

Thus done and enacted at our Ordinary Assembly, held 
at the Guiana Public Buildings, Georgetown, Demerary, 
this Fourth Day of August, 1836, and published on the 
: Ninth following. 

(Signed) J. Carmichael Smyth. 

By command of the Court, 

H. E. F. Young, 

Secretary. 



GOVERNMENT NOTICE. 

Major-General Sir James Carmichael Smyth has 
directed that the following Returns for the Quarter ending on 
the 30th June last, shall be published in the Royal Gazette, 
for general information ; and his Excellency has been pleased 
further to order, that similar Returns shall, in future, be 
communicated to the public as soon after the expiration of 
each Quarter as they can be prepared. 

The important and interesting progress of religion and 
of morality ; the industry and good conduct of all classes of 
this community; the increased value and amount of the 
exports and imports ; are all so clearly shown by the docu- 
ments themselves, that the Lieutenant-Governor has given 



BRITISH GUIANA. 165 

orders that they should be published without any further 
comment than the expression of the very great pleasure His 
Excellency derives at being able to communicate such grati- 
fying intelligence to all those interested in the prosperity of 
British Guiana. 

By command of His Excellency, 

H. E. F. Young, 
Guiana Public Buildings? Gov. Sec. 

8th August, 1836. 



(A.) 

Return of Marriages in British Guiana, during the June 
Quarter of the Year 1836. 

1. Marriages by Special Licence . . 28 

2. Ditto by Publication of Banns . . 276 

Total - - - 304 



(B.) 

Return of Communicants at the Holy Sacrament in British 
Guiana, during the June Quarter of the Year 1836. 



1. Church of England . . . 

2. Church of Scotland 

3. Reformed Church of Holland 

4. Lutheran Church 

5. Roman Catholic Church . 

6. Wesleyan Missionaries . 

7. London Missionary Society 



1508 

489 
38 



1303 
1172 



Total - 4510 



166 BRITISH GUIANA. 



(C.) 

Return of Young People who have attended Schools in 
British Guiana during the June Quarter of the Year 1836. 

1. Daily Schools 1046 

2. Afternoon ditto 593 

3. Sunday ditto 3190 

4. Infant ditto . . . .430 

Total ----- 5259 



N.B. This Return is not so complete as could be wished, 
owing to the Returns from several Schools not having been 
received. 

(D.) 

Return of Convictions before the Supreme Courts of 
Criminal Justice in British Guiana, in the June Quarter 
of the Year 1836. 

1. In the District of Demerary and Essequebo . 8 

2. In the District of Berbice . .2 

Total - - - . io 



(E.) 
Return of Convictions before the Inferior Courts of 
Criminal Justice of British Guiana, in the June Quarter 
of the Year 1836. 

1. Demerary .... 

2. Essequebo . . . . . 

3. Berbice . . . 

Total - - 83 12 



Males. 


Females. 


52 


11 


18 


1 


13 






BRITISH GUIANA. 



167 



Major-General Sir James Carmichael Smyth has 
directed that the following Returns for the Quarter ending 
on the 30th September last, shall be published in the Royal 
Gazette, for general information ; and His Excellency has 
been pleased further to order, that similar Returns shall, in 
future, be communicated to the public, as soon after the 
expiration of each Quarter as they can be prepared. 

The important and interesting progress of religion and 
of morality ; the industry and good conduct of all classes of 
this community ; the increased value and amount of the 
exports and imports ; are all so clearly shown by the docu- 
ments themselves, that the Lieutenant-Governor has given 
orders that they should be published without any further 
comment, than the expression of the very great pleasure His 
Excellency derives at being able to communicate such grati- 
fying intelligence to all those interested in the prosperity of 
British Guiana. 

By command of His Excellency, 

H. E. F. Young, 

Guiana Public Buildings, Gov. Sec. 

8th November, 1836. 



(A.) 

Return of Communicants at the Holy Sacrament in British 

Guiana, during the September Quarter. 

i. Church of England . . . . 1885 

2. Church of Scotland . . 391 

3. Reformed Church of Holland 

4. Lutheran Church 

5. Roman Catholic Church . . . 203 

6. Wesleyan Missionaries .... 1384 

7. London Missionary Society . . . 1144 

8. Moravian Missionaries .... 



Total 



5007 



168 BRITISH GUIANA. 



(B.) 

Return of Marriages in British Guiana, during the 
September Quarter. 

1. Marriages by Special Licence . . 19 

2. Ditto by Publication of Banns . . 372 

Total - 391 



(C.) 

Return of Young People who have attended Schools in 
British Guiana, during the September Quarter. ra 

1. Daily Schools 1943 

2. Afternoon ditto 2560 

3. Sunday ditto 5967 

4. Infant ditto . . . 734 



Total - - - 11,204 



(D.) 

Return of Convictions before the Supreme Courts of 
Criminal Justice in British Guiana, during the September 
Quarter. 

Males. Females. 

1. In the District of Demerary and 

Essequebo . . . .12 

2. In the District of Berbice (no Court 

held) . . 

Total - - 12 



BRITISH GUIANA. 169 

(E.) 

Return of Convictions before the Inferior Courts of 
Criminal Justice in British Guiana, during the September 
Quarter. 

i. Demerary . '. 

2. Essequebo 

3. Berbice 

Total - - 179 



Males. 


Females. 


. 135 


16 


. 32 


3 


. 12 


2 



170 



CHAPTER XII. 
COMMERCE AND FINANCE. 

WANT OF LABOURERS STILL FELT — MISSION TO CUBA — ITS 

FAILURE ADVANTAGES OF THE PORT OF DEMERARA 

RETURNS, SHOWING THE EXTENT OF COMMERCE INCREASE 

OF LABOURERS IMPORTANCE OF THE TIMBER TRADE 

FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS AND AMOUNT OF CURRENCY. 

Notwithstanding the agitation that was kept up, 
and the excitement caused by the misrepresentations 
of a disappointed and now humbled opposition, the 
Governor has contrived, with the assistance of the 
many honourable and good men in the colony, to 
promote a thorough reform in most of the regulations 
that affected the commercial and financial prosperity 
of the province, and to place both upon a more liberal 
and a better foundation. 

That British Guiana is perhaps the most important 
colony under the British crown, and will soon be the 
most valuable, is neither an improper nor an unwarranted 
assertion. With a body of labourers not more than 
one-fifth of the number employed in Jamaica, she was 
able, even in the days of the greatest depression, to raise 
produce nearly equal to three-fourths of all that Jamaica 
has ever exported. If such, then, was actually the case, 
during the existence of slavery, what may we not expect 



BRITISH GUIANA. 171 

from the better regulated and improving arrangements 
of free labour ? Besides, we must recollect that, in 
the course of the 300 and more years that the land 
in Jamaica has been under cultivation, the most pro- 
ductive soil has been greatly exhausted, and there is 
no new country to commence upon, whereas British 
Guiana may be pronounced as almost in its virgin state. 
The few patches of cultivation that exist on the sea- 
coast, and for a short distance up the banks of her 
largest rivers, are a mere nothing in comparison with 
the millions of acres still in a state of nature, and all 
composed of the same rich vegetable mould as that 
which has already rewarded so abundantly the indus- 
trious cultivator. 

If labourers could be obtained, cultivation, as I 
have said, might be pushed to any extent ; and so 
anxious was the present Governor to secure the 
prosperity of the colony in this respect, that at the 
very moment the colonial malcontents were loading 
him -with every species of personal abuse, he was 
interceding with the Home Government for permis- 
sion to send to the Havannah to engage some of 
the captured negroes, which, it was reported, had 
accumulated there to such an extent, that the Spanish 
authorities had become seriously alarmed. This per- 
mission was at last obtained ; and, after a very 
humane and well-considered ordinance had been 

i 2 



172 BRITISH GUIANA. 

passed for regulating the terms 011 which these 
labourers were to be engaged, and the treatment and 
encouragement they were to receive on their arrival in 
the province, Henry E. Fox Young, Esq. the 
government secretary, a gentleman of sound judg- 
ment, great discretion, and well acquainted with the 
subject in all its bearings, was despatched to Cuba. It 
was impossible to have made a better choice. Mr. Young 
possessed the most perfect confidence of the Governor, 
and, like every well-judging man in the colony, had 
long appreciated the zeal and anxiety with which 
he had studied its best interests ; he therefore entered 
upon his mission with every desire and a determination 
to accomplish the utmost good that could possibly be 
obtained for the colonists in British Guiana. The 
result of this mission, and all the circumstances con- 
nected with it, and the falsehoods that had gone forth 
respecting the captured negroes, are so fully explained 
by Mr. Young, in the following letter, which he 
addressed to Sir James Carmichael Smyth on his return, 
that it is not necessary for me to add any comments. 

27th July, 1836. 
Sir, 

His Majesty's Government having signified its permis- 
sion that British Guiana should participate in the benefit of 
a supply of free labour from the Island of Cuba, I have, in 
pursuance of the instructions with which your Excellency 
honoured me, to report the result of a mission to the capital 
of that colony, undertaken — 



BRITISH GUIANA. 1J3 

First, — For the purpose of obtaining information upon the 
actual disposable number of labourers. 

Secondly, — Of the probable extent of immigration for the 
future, and, 

Lastly, — In order to make the necessary arrangements for 
ensuring its continuance, under such rules as regarded the 
selection of the persons, and of their transport, as should be 
alike advantageous to the labourers, and to the community of 
which they were to become members. 

On the 27th April, which was the day following that of my 
arrival, the British Commissioner at the Havannah under the 
Treaty between England and Spain for the suppression of the 
Slave-trade, was put in possession of the several official docu- 
ments which establish the legal existence in your Excellency's 
Government of the conditions on which His Majesty's Secre- 
tary of State had sanctioned the introduction into Guiana of 
a proportion of the liberated Africans. At an appointed audi- 
ence on the same evening, His Excellency the Governor and 
Captain-General of Cuba received from me your Excellency's 
despatch, a reply to which I have now the honour of laying 
before you. 

With respect to the first point of this report, it is but natural 
to advert to the prevalence of a very general impression that 
the number of Africans captured during a succession of years 
by the British cruizers, and liberated in the Havannah, at 
present constituted no inconsiderable portion of the lower 
orders of society, and that its continued augmentation, as well 
from natural causes as from the same adventitious circum- 
stances to which it owed its origin, had excited an apprehen- 
sion, not uncommon in Slave States, that the permanency of 
the servile condition of the remaining classes of the working 
population might be shaken by any further accession of 
emancipated labourers. On whatever foundation may rest 
the impression to which allusion has been made, whether it 
arise from the desire of the Colonial Spanish Government to 
acquire merit or indemnification for recognising, in the letter 



17^ BRITISH GUIANA. 

of the law, the liberated African to be a denizen of Cuba, or 
to whatever other source it may be traced, no long residence 
at the Havannah is necessary to ascertain that scarcely any 
idea can be more egregiously erroneous than that of supposing 
the local Spanish Government to experience inconvenience 
from the residence of the black freedman, or to entertain any 
real desire that he should be removed from its jurisdiction. 
Of the thousands rescued by the British cruizers from the 
destiny to which individual slave-dealers would have allotted 
them, but few, if any, in the enjoyment of freedom, remain to 
afford even a colourable pretext for the alarm alleged to be 
felt by the colonial authorities, and if credence is to be given 
to the common report at the Havannah, of the very great faci- 
lity with which the captured African has hitherto been made 
by his employer to succeed to any vacancy which death may 
occasion in the list of prsedial slaves, such a nefarious system 
of recruiting would sufficiently account for his disappearance 
as a freedman, without resorting to the difficult alternative of 
attributing more than the usual malignity to the cholera, or a 
more fearful mortality than has been said inevitably to attend 
the deportation of the African from his native climate. It is 
right, however, distinctly to state, that these causes are 
supposed by official authority in Cuba satisfactorily to account 
for the extinction of a class in society, which, from the lapse 
of time since its formation, should now comprise a very 
numerous body of human beings. Be the cause what it may, 
by very much the greatest portion, if not all, those whom 
humanity and policy conjoined to re-invest with the rights of 
nature, are unhappily not found exercising them, as it was 
benevolently planned, for the mutual advantage of themselves 
and their adopted country. I am therefore, with great regret, 
to report, that there is not any actual disposable number of 
labourers in Cuba transferrable to Demerary. 

II. The despatch which I have had the honour to present 
from Captain-General Don Miguel Tacon will, doubtless, 
have communicated to your Excellency the intentions of the 



BRITISH GUIANA. 175 

Cuba Government, respecting the transfer to Guiana, of any 
future captures which may be at the disposal of the Spanish 
Authorities. It is my duty, however, to report, that, as in the 
case of the most recent seizure which, up to the period of my 
visit, had been brought into the port of Havannah by a 
British vessel of war, the application of the Commissioner to 
have the Africans located in a British colony was unsuc- 
cessful ; and that as, moreover, it proved so at a time when 
the recent treaty (by which the disposal of captures under the 
above circumstances devolved exclusively upon the Commis- 
sioner,) was a matter of notoriety, the local Spanish Autho- 
rities, in profiting by the then absence of the receipt from 
their Home Government of the formal ratification of the 
Treaty, indicated, in the most intelligible manner, their real 
determination upon the future destination of the Africans 
over whom they may chance to obtain a right of assigning a 
location. 

The probability of obtaining labourers from the Spanish 
Government being thus slight, it remains for me to mention 
the proposed distribution of those Africans who may hereafter, 
in consequence of the recent Treaty, be at the disposal of the 
British Functionaries ; and I am to state that, being apprised 
by the Commissioner of the eager desire which exists amongst 
other colonies to obtain a share of these labourers, and per- 
ceiving that no trifling weight was attached to the priority of 
their applications, as well as to the lessened expense of 
transport which would result from a preference being given 
to such colonies as were nearest to Cuba, the annexed note, 
marked (A), was addressed in corroboration of the plea which 
the social condition and the legislative enactments of British 
Guiana authorised me to urge for the attainment of a mono- 
poly, or at all events a major proportion, of any future 
supplies. Your Excellency is respectfully referred to the 
Commissioner's Letter, herewith forwarded, for information 
as to the course which, after repeated communications with 
me, he has alone, for the present, felt justified in pledging 



176 BRITISH GUIANA. 

himself to adopt with respect to future captures by the British 
cruizers. 

III. In closing this statement it is scarcely requisite to add, 
that rules of selection were contemplated to be necessary rather 
in reference to the numbers who were supposed to be congre- 
gated at the Havannah, ready to be shipped to the claimant 
colonies, than to such as might from time to time be brought 
there in comparatively small bodies ; the non-existence of any 
such large depot being already reported, I have only to 
observe, that the remaining part of the subject which belonged 
to this point of the report has been, as your Excellency is 
aware, most judiciously provided for by His Majesty's Govern- 
ment, in the appointment of a resident Superintendent. 

Permit me, in conclusion, to say that, although the object 
which your Excellency had in view, viz., an importation of free 
labourers, is not likely to be gained from Cuba to as great an 
extent as could be wished, shoufd your Excellency deem no 
zeal to have been wanting on my part to secure (as I would 
fain hope I have secured,) all that circumstances rendered 
attainable, the satisfaction of having been employed to further 
a measure of your projection , the motives to which I cordially 
recognise to be, as your Excellency has truly described them, 
" a desire to contribute towards the sum total of human hap- 
piness, and, in so much, to diminish the amount of human 
misery," will more than amply compensate me for the not 
infrequent fatigues and inconveniences which were necessarily 
attendant on my journey. 

(Signed) H. E. F. Young, Gov. Sec. 

(Note A.) 

Havannah, 1 st May, 1836. 
Dear Sir, 

Referring to the several conversations which we have 
had respecting my mission from Guiana, to obtain the 
transfer to that colony of such liberated Africans as might 
be at your disposal, it appears desirable that you should be in 



BRITISH GUIANA. 177 

possession of a memorandum of the circumstances which 
render Guiana a more "eligible location for the labourers in 
question than any other colony. 

1st. The fund provided for the medical care and general 
maintenance of the labourer, before the execution of the 
indenture, is higher in Guiana than elsewhere. 

2nd. The scale of food and allowances is more advantageous. 

3rd. The indenture is more easily cancelled in case of ill- 
treatment. 

4th. The wages during the indenture are higher. 

5th. The demand for labour, and consequently its remune- 
ration, will, in every probability, even after the expiration of 
the indenture, be higher in Guiana than elsewhere. 

Having thus adverted to the excess of positive benefit which 
Guiana holds out to the labourer, over and above those offered 
elsewhere, I do not feel myself precluded from observing, that 
as philanthropic motives actuated the British Government to 
obtain by treaty the right of disposing of the captured and 
liberated Africans, there can be little doubt of the like bene- 
volence being expected to be exercised in the selection of the 
place of their destination. 

The application of a colony like Hondnras, the sole or prin- 
cipal resources of which are the woods in the remote interior, 
whose population is thin and scattered, and whose prospects 
are described by the wood-cutters themselves to be ruinous 
unless supported by an accession of labourers from hence, will 
surely not be deemed preferable to that of Guiana, the present 
state and future prospects of which afford and promise those 
means of advancement in civilization which are seldom found 
to be permanent or extensive, if, indeed, existing at all, in any 
community that is not, like it, at once prosperous as well as 
free. In the absence, then, of any precise instructions from 
the Colonial Department or Foreign Office, the best course, 
as, with all deference, I beg to urge, is, to do that for the 
African which, were he capable of exercising a sound judg- 
ment, he would do for himself, — that is, give a preference to 

I 5 



178 BRITISH GtJIAtfA. 

the colony offering the highest terras of positive and relative 
benefit. 

I do not think it irrelevant to observe, that, subordinate to 
the welfare of the African, a high and permanent advantage 
may result from his judicious location, under the humane 
regulations which his Majesty's Government have exacted 
from the colonies desirous of obtaining his services; since it 
will show that there are modes of rendering this description 
of labourer a useful member of society, other than by the 
physical coercion which has long prevailed. The incitements 
to labour which are with these people to be substituted for 
the whip, are as yet more abundant in Guiana than elsewhere. 
It is therefore anxiously to be wished, that any doubts which 
may possibly be still entertained of the success of the proposed 
experiment, should be resolved in that colony. 

In conclusion, I must not omit to add, that, whatever reason 
the colonists may at present have to expect these labourers 
free of cost of transport, it is to be hoped that the question of 
expense will not be suffered to interfere with the substantial 
humanity of locating them in a colony like Guiana, offering 
the greatest facility for their industrious occupation and moral 
improvement. 

(Signed) H. E. F. Young, Gov. Sec. 



Havannak, 2nd May, 1836. 

Sir, 
I have had the honour to receive from the hands of 
H. E. F. Young, Esq., Secretary to the Government under 
your command, your letter addressed to His Majesty's Com- 
missioners, dated 13 th March. 

Agreeably with the instructions already transmitted by 
Viscount Palmerston for the guidance of this Commission, I 
entered into immediate communication with Mr. Young, who 
gave me a very lucid detail upon the subject of his mission ; 
and furnished me with a copy of the ordinance, and govern- 
ment notice, enacted by the colony, " To provide for the 



BRITISH GUIANA. 179 

subsistence, location, and settlement, of Africans to be trans- 
ferred to British Guiana, and to promote their industry and 
good conduct." 

The permission to remove the Africans liberated under the 
sentence of the Mixed Commission being a matter of compa- 
ratively recent occurrence, and confined until lately to the 
colony of Trinidad, His Majesty's Government have not yet 
furnished the Commissioners with any numerical scale, or 
definitive line of conduct thereupon, the absence of which 
would seem to vest in them a power over the fate of these 
unfortunate people, which it obviously cannot be the intention 
of the Government to place in their hands. 

With reference, however, to the subject of your letter, and 
the representations made by Mr. Young, I find that, on recur- 
ring to the instructions from the Foreign Office, relative to a 
demand made by the colony of Honduras, for a portion of the 
emancipated negroes, the Duke of Wellington consented to an 
arrangement to that effect ; his grace desiring at the same 
time, that the proposals should be in conformity with the 
spirit, and upon the principles, laid down in a letter written, 
under the directions of the Earl of Aberdeen, by Mr. Glad- 
stone to Viscount Mahon, dated the 6th April, 1835, an 
extract from which T beg leave to make, as bearing upon the 
present case :— " Recommending them (His Majesty's Com- 
missioners) to transfer the Africans to Honduras, in preference 
to Trinidad, should the terms offered be more advantageous 
to them than those which are held out in the colony of 
Trinidad ; and in case no such superior advantages be prof- 
fered, to make the distribution with due regard for the 
demand for labour, and the probability of advancement in 
their moral and social as well as physical condition in each." 

Having accordingly compared the ordinance " to provide 
for the subsistence of the emancipated negroes," enacted by 
the Government of British Guiana, with the terms now in 
force at Trinidad, and those offered by Honduras, I find the 
former so infinitely more advantageous to the Africans than 



180 BRITISH GUIANA. 

either of the others, that I feel I shall best execute the 
humane wishes of His Majesty's Government, as well as my 
own duty towards these unfortunate people, by transferring to 
Demerara any cargoes which may be emancipated by this 
Commission between the present period and that of the receipt 
of fuller and more particular instructions upon the subject 
from the Foreign Office. 

I must not omit to mention, that I am much influenced in 
this determination in consequence of the assurance given to 
me by Mr. Young, that there does not exist, upon the part of 
the Government of Guiana, any intention to expose these 
poor people to the laborious and unhealthy occupation of 
cutting mahogany, — a fate inevitable to them if sent to Hon- 
duras. 

The line of conduct heretofore pursued by the Commis- 
sioners, and fully approved by His Majesty's Government, 
respecting the mode of transfer to be adopted for the liberated 
Africans, will of course be observed in the case of British 
Guiana ; and I have only farther to assure you, that if it has 
been in my power to assist Mr. Young in the praiseworthy 
zeal which he has exhibited, or to impart to him any informa- 
tion likely to confer future benefit upon the colony under your 
command, it will be to me a source of sincere gratification. 

(Signed) Edward W. H. Schenleg. 

Tne cultivation of sugar in this province is much 
less laborious than in the island colonies, and the cane 
is equally, if not more productive. It does not require 
to be planted annually, or at stated periods ; for when 
the field is once prepared, and the cuttings or slips are 
deposited in the earth, they will grow and flourish for 
a quarter of a century, and every successive crop pro- 
duce a stronger shoot, and a more : uicy cane, than the 



BRITISH GUIANA. 181 

last. This is called rationing, and all that is necessary 
is, to replace any plant that may have become rotten 
or decayed, and to destroy the weeds that spring up 
with such rankness and luxuriance after the periodical 
rains. As there is no proper seed-time, neither is 
there any appointed period for the harvest. On most 
estates, the planting has been so regulated, that certain 
divisions, or fields, are in a state of maturity every 
month of the year, and, except from some extraor- 
dinary state of the weather, the sugar-boiler would 
not be unemployed for a single hour, from the 1st 
of January to the 31st of December. My excellent 
friend, Dr. M'Turk, has so arranged upon his estate 
Felicity (and it is a small property), that he can ship 
twenty-five hogsheads of sugar every month in the 
year, with other produce in proportion. 

There are here no hurricane-months, and no danger- 
ous roadsteads ; therefore ships can arrive, load, and 
depart, whenever it suits their convenience. The only 
drawback formerly, was the depth of water on the bar, 
which prevented ships of a large size from entering the 
river ; but even in such cases, it was found not more 
troublesome to load a ship outside the bar, than it was 
in almost every other colony to bring the produce from 
the interior to the water's edge. For many years past, 
however, it has been found that the river at its mouth 
has been gradually deepening, the bar is greatly 



182 BRITISH GUIANA. 

lessened, and at spring-tides vessels of 500 or 600 tons 
can now pass over it without risk. The colour of the 
water gives sufficient warning of an approach to the 
coast long before any danger can be incurred, and the 
excellent regulations that have been adopted with 
respect to the pilotage, render Demerara one of the 
safest ports that a ship can make for. 

In 1833, the slave labour of this colony sent to 
Great Britain and Ireland produce which rendered 
to the Exchequer no less a sum than 2,^28,6611. ster- 
ling, in duties alone, and there were imported of British 
manufactures to the value of above 700,000^. The 
number of vessels that entered her ports was about 
900, and their tonnage 117,261 tons. The number of 
seamen employed in the trade with British Guiana, 
taken on an average of the last five years, is about 
6000. I have already shown how much free labour 
has increased the quantities produced in the present 
year, as compared with the last ; but in order to 
show them more distinctly, I have added severa 
official returns, with the government notices that 
accompanied them, which not only show the actual 
increase, but also the extent of the commerce of this 
colony. Though the mission to Cuba failed, it will 
be seen that the advantage held out to industrious 
labourers has already produced a considerable influx 
from other colonies ; and as soon as these advantages 



BRITISH GUIANA. 183 

are better known, and the present restrictions are 
removed, that prosperity of which the foundation has 
been laid with so much wisdom, will increase with a 
rapidity that has never yet been equalled in the 
progress of any state. The exported products of 
the soil have already increased a third, and the value 
of British manufactures imported into and consumed 
in the colony, is a third more than what it ever was 
in times of slavery. 



GOVERNMENT NOTICE. 

Major- General Sir James Carmichael Smyth has 
directed that the following documents be published in the 
Royal Gazette for the information of all concerned. 

[A.] — A return of the quantity of colonial produce shipped 
from the ports of Georgetown and New Amsterdam during 
the first quarter of the present year, as compared with the 
corresponding periods of the three last years of slavery, 
namely, 1831, 1832, and 1833. 

[B.] — A return of colonial produce manufactured in British 
Guiana during the year 1835, according to the returns given 
in, upon oath, from the respective estates to the Financial 
Accountant, and contrasted with the returns for 1833 and 
1834. 

II. 

His Excellency is desirous of offering his sincere congratu. 
lations to every person interested in the welfare of British 
Guiana, at the irrefragable proofs which the foregoing docu- 
ments afford of the continued prosperous, happy, and flourish- 
ing state of this province. There have been already exported, 
during the first quarter of the present year, 18,789 hogsheads, 



184 BRITISH GUIANA. 

1223 tierces, and 1500 barrels of sugar; being 4203 hogsheads 
and 300 tierces more than passed through the Custom-house 
during the same period, upon the average of the three last 
years of slavery. The additional quantities of rum, molasses, 
and of cotton, exported during the last quarter, have also been 
very considerable. Of coffee alone, the additional amount 
has been 450,562 pounds. Satisfactory as the Custom-house 
returns are, those of the Financial Accountant are even still 
more so, showing an immense steady increase of the staple 
article of produce manufactured during the year 1835. 

in: 

The Lieutenant-Governor requests of the Special Justices 
to take every opportunity of explaining to the Apprenticed 
Labourers how much he is pleased and gratified at their good 
conduct. His Excellency will not fail to lay before the Right 
Honourable the Lord Glenelg, in order that the same may be 
submitted to the King, a full report of the manner in which 
the Apprenticed Labourers discharge their duties ; of the 
anxiety they evince to obtain instruction and information; 
and of the respect which they pay to the laws, and to those 
placed in authority over them. The Lieutenant-Governor 
feels confident the Apprenticed Labourers will continue to 
conduct themselves in the same meritorious and praiseworthy 
manner ; and that, after the expiration of their apprentice- 
ship (on the 1st August, 1840), they will feel an honest pride 
in showing to the world that they are, in every respect, worthy 
of being classed with the best of their free fellow-subjects of 
the British empire. 



BRITISH GUIANA. 



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BRITISH GUIANA 



187 



Return of Shipping, Tonnage, and Seamen, entered the 
Ports of British Guiana in the June Quarter of the 
Year 1836. 



1. Demerary and Essequibo . 

2. Berbice 



Total 



Vessels. Seamen. Tons. 

103 1,091 10,876 

20 270 3,935 

123 1,361 14,811 



Return of Articled Servants Imported into British 
Guiana in the June Quarter of the Year 1836. 



1. Males 

2. Females 



170 
44 



Total 



214 



Return of Colonial Produce Shipped from the Ports of 
British Guiana in the June Quarter of the Year 1836. 


1. Demerary . 

2. Berbice . . 

Total - - 


Sugar. 


Rum. 


Hhds. 


Trcs. 


Brls. 


Puns. 


Tics. 


Brls. 


11,085 
2,313 


622 
385 


788 
402 


4,321 

1,080 


1,054 
124 


409 
5 


13,398 


1,007 


1,190 


5,401 


1,178 


414 




1. Demerary . . 




Molasses. 


Coffee. 


Cotton. 


Hhds 


Trs. 


Brls 


Pounds. 


Bales. 


5,611 
472 


2 


. . 


627,150 
15,300 


856 
136 


Total 




6,083 


2 


• • 


642,450 


992 



188 ERITISH GUIANA. 

Return of the Value of Goods Imported into British Guiana 
in the June Quarter of the Year 1836. 

£ s. d. 

1. Into the Port of Demerary . . . . 155,111 17 

2. Into the Port of Berbice 21,555 Oil 



Total Sterling - - - £176,665 17 11 



Return of Balance in the Colonial Chests on the 30th 
June, 1836. 

■£ s. d. 

1. In the Chest at Georgetown . . . 21,336 14 4 

2. In the Chest at New Amsterdam . . 5,255 12 

Total Sterling - - - £26,592 6 4 

Compiled from the Official Returns. 

H. E. F. Young, 

Gov. Sec. 

Return of Shipping, Tonnage, and Seamen, entered the 
Ports of British Guiana during the September Quarter. 

Vessels. Seamen. Tons. 

1. Demerary and Essequibo ... 123 1,094 22,405 

2. Berbice 23 220 3,771 

Total 146 1,314 26,176 



Return of Labourers and Artificers Imported into 
British Guiana during the September Quarter. 

1. Males 483 

2. Females 190 

Total - - 673 



BRITISH GUIANA. 



189 



Return of Colonial Produce Shipped] from the Ports of 
British Guiana during the September Quarter. 


1. Demerary . . 

2. Berbice . 

Total - - 


Sugar. 


Rum. 


Hh.ls. 


Trcs. 


Brls. 


Puns. 


Hhds. 


Brls. 


11,754 
2,680 


887 
377 


454 
64 


3,266 
1,142 


1,135 
148 


348 


14,434 


1,264 


518 


4,408 


1,283 


348 




1. Demerary . ... 

2. Berbice 


Molasses. 


Coffee. 


Cotton. 


Hhds. 


Trs. 


Brls. 


Pounds. 


Bales. 


5,616 
1,157 


52 


. . 


272,250 
121,650 


322 

30 


Total 


- 


6,773 


52 


• • 


393,900 


352 



Return of the Value of Goods Imported into British 
Guiana during the September Quarter. 



1. Into the Port of Demerary 

2. Into the Port of Berbice . 



Total Sterling 



£ s. d. 

225,690 4 

35,288 

£260,978 4 



Return of Balance in the Colonial [Chests, on 30th 
September, 1836. 



1. In the Chest at Georgetown 

2. In the Chest at New Amsterdam 

Total Sterling 
Compiled from the Official Returns. 



£ s. d. 

21,879 14 

11,401 12 10 

33,281 6 10 



H. E. F. Young, 

Gov. Sec. 



J90 BRITISH GUIANA. 

Independent of the profits to be derived from culti- 
vation, there is another source of wealth, almost inex- 
haustible, in this colony, which has scarcely as yet 
excited any attention, — this is, the valuable timber 
which is found in its forests. These forests, indeed, 
afford not only an abundance of the most useful and 
valuable timber, of size and substance fit for any pur- 
pose to which timber has ever been applied, but are also 
prolific in all the varieties of close-grained, hard orna- 
mental woods, that are sought after by the upholsterer 
and the cabinet-maker, and in as great beauty and 
perfection as any that have yet been manufactured 
for ornamental furniture. Several wood-cutting esta- 
blishments have already been formed, but none with 
any great extent of capital. There is here a 

LEGITIMATE OBJECT FOR A JOINT-STOCK COMPANY. 

If a sufficient capital were embarked in this trade, it 
would soon become a very important and lucrative 
concern ; more especially since the valuable discovery 
of Mr. Hugh Rodie. A tree very common in almost 
every district of the province, as that gentlemen has 
proved, affords a bark more valuable as a remedy, and 
much richer in all its ascertained specific ingredients, 
than the best Spanish or Jesuits"* bark. 

The Green-heart tree of British Guiana is equal 
to any teak or African oak in hardness and durability, 
and might be imported at as cheap a rate as the 



BRITISH GUIANA. 191 

pine deals of Norway or North America, while the 
ornamental woods require only to be seen to become 
fashionable. 

Much of the prosperity of every state, whether 
great or small, will always depend upon the healthy 
or unhealthy condition of her monetary system ; and 
in a community like British Guiana, it was of the 
very utmost importance to have her financial arrange- 
ments fixed upon a sound and durable basis. No 
subject has occupied the attention of the present 
Governor more than this, and few were so capable of 
understanding it properly in all its bearings. So late 
as the beginning of the present year, Demerara and 
Essequibo had one circulating medium, and Ber- 
bice another. In Demerara and Essequibo this con- 
sisted partly of paper money, and partly of silver 
coined in England into the fractional parts of the 
Dutch currency. 

At the time when slavery was abolished, there 
was in circulation exactly 157,000/. of paper money, 
consisting of Joe notes, which for the sake of conve- 
nience are sometimes cut into halves. The silver coin 
in circulation amounted to 36,000/., and consisted 
of three-guilder and guilder pieces, with all their 
fractional divisions. The money, therefore, actually 
circulating in the colony on the 1st of August, 
1834, was about 200,000/. sterling ; but accounts 



192 BRITISH GUIANA. 

are still kept, and all moneys calculated, in Dutch 
currency. 

In 1808, the attention of the Court of Policy was 
called to the condition of the then circulating medium, 
which consisted of gold Joes, or Johannes, in almost 
every instance mutilated, and plugged up with copper 
or brass, gilt over, so that in many pieces the gold they 
contained was not of more value than half the amount 
they represented. The Court of Policy caused all this 
money to be withdrawn from circulation, replacing it by 
a paper circulation of equal value. The quantity of 
those plugged Joes that was withdrawn, according to 
their current value, was about 50,000/., but the intrinsic 
value, when sold to the Bank of England, was only 
34,744Z. 8s. Sd. A great part of the above sum was 
vested in the British funds as a security for the Go- 
vernment paper money ; but several thousand pounds 
were also coined into fractional silver money, and imme- 
diately sent out to the colony. 

From the moment the first money was invested in 
Government securities, the surplus revenue of the 
taxes was carefully remitted to the trustees appointed 
by the Governor and the Court of Policy, and at 
present the annual interest of that funded property is 
more than 5000/., and the capital exceeds the value 
of all the colony paper in circulation. 

It was declared, when this paper money was made to 



BRITISH GUIANA. 193 

supply the place of the gold withdrawn, that none but 
the perfect and standard coins of Spain and of Holland 
should be allowed to pass current, and that the perfect 
standard coins of England, and other countries, would 
only be taken at their relative values, or according to 
the rates of exchange. 

Before the abolition of slavery, the merchant in 
Georgetown has been known to pay as high as 
eighteen guilders for the pound sterling, in good bills on 
London, while in January last he would scarcely give 
twelve guilders for the best bills in the market. Four- 
teen guilders, however, are reckoned the par for a 
pound sterling. 

The surplus revenue, as I have stated, was vested 
in the funds, in the names of certain trustees, for 
the regulation of which it was at one time recom- 
mended to have an Act of Parliament The quan- 
tity of paper money issued and circulated within 
the colony has never exceeded the amount of that 
property, — so that if any crisis did occur, the holder of 
such paper knew where he could find its value. It is 
in consequence of this perfect security, that the Govern- 
ment paper is rather at a premium than a discount in 
all internal transactions. Berbice had also her paper 
money, amounting to upwards of 30,000/., with a very 
limited and ill-regulated silver currency ; but there 
existed no other guarantee for this paper than the 

K 



194 BRITISH GUIANA. 

promissory notes of the Berbice Association, a chartered 
company in Holland, to which this colony belonged, 
as private property, when we took possession of it. 
These promissory notes were originally issued by the 
company in payment of their colonial officers and 
servants ; and the whole of their property, whether as 
a company or as individuals, was made liable for the 
amount of all such notes. 

When Great Britain captured Berbice, the con- 
querors not only acknowledged the validity of the 
notes already in circulation, but, as a present resource, 
greatly increased their amount. The private pro- 
perty of the Dutch association, as well as its public 
funds, were all confiscated ; consequently the British 
Government became responsible for the payment of 
the paper money then in circulation; but as this 
was a question not quite understood, and might be 
questioned, the Berbice paper currency has never 
fetched its nominal value in gold or silver coin, and 
has been a great drawback upon the internal commerce 
and trade of the two districts. Sir James Carmichael 
Smyth, among other matters, lent his powerful mind 
to the consideration of this subject, and by a proper 
application of the public funds, and a little exertion 
and management in realising them, he has been able to 
cancel the whole of the " association notes," and to place 
the circulating medium of the entire province upon the 



BEITISH GUIANA. 195 

same footing, so as greatly to increase the amount of 
coined money. Knowing also the great importance of 
having a sufficiency of small money in the colony when 
the free labour of the negro would be brought into the 
market, he prevailed upon the Court of Policy, in 
January, 1834, to pass a resolution that the interest of 
their funded property (about 5000/. annually) should 
be remitted in silver coin ; and, had that resolution 
been carried into immediate effect, the currency would 
sooner have been placed upon a sound basis, and 
many of the difficulties that were experienced in the 
first months of the transition from slavery to freedom 
would have been altogether obviated. 

The Governor's arrangements were so simple, and 
founded upon such certain data, that it was evident 
from the first they must be adopted eventually, though, 
in consequence of the difficulties thrown in the way of 
establishing a permanent efficient civil list, the final 
adjustment of the finance of the colony was greatly 
retarded. Time and perseverance, however, have 
overcome all opposition, and the colonists already 
begin to experience the good effects of the wisdom and 
prudence, and good common-sense notions of their 
chief ruler. 

The civil list has been established upon a fixed 
principle, the currency off the colony increased and 
regulated, the taxes have been consolidated, and the 

k 2 



196 BRITISH GUIANA. 

revenue greatly improved, industry encouraged, and 
tranquillity secured; and not a single additional 
soldier, or even a police officer, was required during 
the whole progress of this change. 

Let the reader cast his eye once more to the official 
returns; — exports, to the amount of more than a 
million, and imports of nearly three hundred thousand 
pounds value per quarter ! with a clear balance of 
more than thirty thousand pounds in the colonial 
exchequer, and say, if tolerably well governed for the 
future, can the prosperity of British Guiana have any 
limit ? One other great source of the increasing pros- 
perity has arisen from the removal, in a great measure, 
of that ruinous monopoly of almost the whole trade of 
the port by two or three great mercantile houses in 
England. 

In 1833, as above observed, there was scarcely a 
planter in the whole province whose estate was free 
from debt, and a great many properties were mort- 
gaged for their whole value ; consequently, the pro- 
duce of these estates was consigned to the mortgagee in 
Europe, to pay the interest or instalments due upon 
that debt. If there was any surplus, it was barely suffi- 
cient to cover the few necessary supplies of clothing and 
provisions sufficient to enable the slave population to 
keep up the languishing cultivation, which for several 
years had been carried on. No improvements were 



BltlTISH GUIANA. 197 

ever thought of, and even the most necessary repairs 
in the buildings and machinery were often neglected, 
until they were almost beyond repair. Despair 
seemed, therefore, to have benumbed the faculties of 
even the most enterprising members of the community, 
and their whole ambition was how to obtain a compe- 
tent subsistence for themselves and families. They 
could not dispose of a single particle of produce within 
the colony. It must all be shipped for Europe, but 
only in such ships as the " money-lenders'' might 
send for it, and consigned to such persons as they 
were pleased to point out, and at such freights and 
other charges as their consciences would permit them 
to demand. 

The poor heart-broken planter dared not utter a 
single word as to the disposal of his own property, 
nor, as I have also remarked, could he move a single 
step from the beaten path of cultivation, though by 
doing so he might have increased that produce four- 
fold. If he showed the slightest symptoms of discon- 
tent in the one case, or impatience on the other, a fore- 
closure was immediately sued for, and, ten to one, the 
very merchant became the bona fide purchaser of the 
estate, and, perhaps, as an act of charity, might allow 
its late proprietor to remain upon it, as his manager. 

This ruinous system acted most banefully in another 
way, both as regarded the colony and the mother- 



198 BKITISH GUIANA. 

country. The merchants in Georgetown could never 
dispose of their cash in the colony. There was no 
produce ever brought into the market, consequently, 
in making their home payments, they were compelled 
to buy bills or coin ; hence these bills and the standard 
coin of all nations were always at a high premium. 
The English merchant who received the consignments 
applied the proceeds, first to discharge the interest of 
his own debt, and what remained was employed in the 
extension of his other mercantile concerns ; for he con- 
ceived there was no necessity, and certainly there could 
be little inducement, for him to make shipments to 
Demerara. Nothing, therefore, was ever sent out 
but what was actually ordered by the local traders. 
Matters are now very different ; with the sweets of 
liberty, and social happiness, there have returned all 
the blessings this colony ever enjoyed in its most flou- 
rishing state, and many advantages that it never could 
previously have experienced. 

The circulating medium has not only been regu- 
lated, and greatly increased, but it is still increasing. 
The immense advances of money that in former times 
became necessary for the purchase of labourers, are no 
longer called for ; and instead of nominal proprietors, 
who were more firmly bound by the fetters of their cre- 
ditors than ever were the slaves under their control, we 
have men who are in all respects the real owners and 



BRITISH GUIANA. 199 

cultivators of the soil, who can dispose of their produce 
how and where they please, and ask and obtain for it 
their own prices ; they can also select the best ships, 
and at the lowest rates, to send that produce to Europe, 
and can consign it to friends who have their true 
interests at heart. 

The merchant and ship-owner can go into the 
market, and if they have money, purchase the sugar 
on the estates where it is made, and may bargain or not 
for its being brought alongside the ship. Thus the 
original, natural, and healthy state of commerce, which 
consists in the mutual exchange of their productions, 
will soon be restored between this colony and all other 
countries. In 1833, the merchant, as I have stated, 
could not buy a good bill upon England for less than 
eighteen guilders the pound sterling. In 1836, he 
would not give more than twelve guilders for the best 
bills that could be offered ; and the ship that carried 
me from Barbados to British Guiana, in December, 
1835, took down upwards of 10,000/. in specie, to 
purchase rum and molasses. 

While, therefore, the profits upon his own produce 
are more than doubled to the planter, the price of Eu- 
ropean manufactures, of all necessaries, as well as 
luxuries, will be greatly lowered, and the imports in a 
few years will increase a thousand-fold. Great Britain, 
it is therefore evident, will be more than rewarded for 



20 



BRITISH GUIANA. 



the boon she has granted for the freedom of her slave- 
born subjects; and the planters, instead of being 
ruined, as their pretended friends have so long main- 
tained, will rise in the scale of energy and enterprise, 
and acquire more wealth than has ever yet been 
realised, — wealth that will be blessed and preserved to 
their children, and their children's children, for a thou- 
sand generations : — that will no longer be the price of 
human blood, but the reward of honest industry, and 
free labour. Already estates are selling at a great 
advance of price, and in many instances the merchants, 
who were so anxious to secure the compensation- 
money, and who did secure it, have been very much at 
a loss how to dispose of it in a profitable manner. 
Many of them, I believe, have tried to prevail upon the 
planters to receive it back again. 

A colony bank was proposed, a few months ago, 
with a capital of 300,000/., and in ten days 220,000/. 
were subscribed ; and any property that is now 
brought into the market, is eagerly bought up at 
double the price it would have fetched three years ago. 

The millions of acres that may be brought into cul- 
tivation by a little exertion, and a trifling advance of 
capital, independent of the other sources of wealth 
which this bank will call into existence, will not only 
afford subsistence to thousands of our starving popula- 
tion, but enable British Guiana to become a source 



BRITISH GUIANA. 201 

of more real wealth to the world at large than was 
ever yet extracted from the mountains of Mexico and 
Peru, and unaccompanied with any of those sufferings 
which man inflicts upon his fellow-creatures when he 
sends them in#) the bowels of the earth to dig for that 
wealth, which, after all, is but dross. 

It is one of those beautiful arrangements of a good 
and merciful Providence that, whatever " the fool may 
think in his heart," those duties and labours which 
conduce most to the general well-being of mankind are 
at all times those that are the most important and bene- 
ficial to the best interests of the individual. In exca- 
vating the earth to procure gold and silver, to satiate 
the avarice of man, disease and death are the inevitable 
consequences, and the labour increases as the work 
proceeds. In the labours of agriculture, how severe 
soever they may be at the commencement, health 
accompanies every step of our progress ; our comforts 
increase and multiply as we advance, and pleasures 
unspeakable sweeten every day's toil. We not only 
secure all those blessings for ourselves, we establish 
them, and leave them as a legacy to the thousands of 
generations that are to succeed us. The savannah and 
the swamp may be, and indeed often are, the sources 
of malignant disease, and the first settlers suffer accord- 
ingly ; but the moment cultivation spreads, and they 
are made available for the production of food, they are 

k 5 



202 BRITISH GUIANA. 

deprived of all their noxious influences upon the consti- 
tutions of men; and as light and warmth are freely 
admitted to the surface of the soil, and permitted to 
exert their vivifying influences upon those portions 
which the hand of man may have comminuted, the 
deadly pestilence which the bush and the marsh may 
have engendered and nourished, is conquered and 
destroyed. Health uniformly attends upon cultiva- 
tion, and wealth as surely follows in their train ; man, 
however, is too often the author of all his own suffer- 
ings and miseries, and nowhere more so than in the 
West Indies. 

The banks of the Demerara River, which were long 
considered as more fatal to Europeans than the swamps 
of Sierra Leone, are now as healthy as any country 
within the tropics, and it is the extent and perfection 
of cultivation which has made it so, and which has not 
only changed the appearance of the earth's surface, but 
has actually altered and improved the seasons. 



203 



CHAPTER XIII. 
' NATURAL HISTORY. 

NATURE OF THE SOIL IN BRITISH GUIANA — EXTENT AND 
DEPTH — ACCUMULATION OF TREES UNDER GEORGETOWN — 
RICHNESS OF VEGETATION — DR. M'TURK, AND MAJOR 
STAPLES, BENEFACTORS OF THE COMMUNITY — ARTESIAN 
WELLS AND LAMAHA CANAL — VARIETY OF ANIMALS, BIRDS, 
AND REPTILES — HABITS AND INSTINCTS OF BIRDS AND IN- 
SECTS — FISHES. 

The whole of the land that has hitherto been culti- 
vated in the province of British Guiana, and many 
millions of acres in addition, have been gained from 
the sea since the boundaries of the Atlantic Ocean 
were originally fixed. The accumulation of earthy 
particles and vegetable matter that form this land, is 
nearly 150 feet deep, close to the shore. At high- 
water, and especially during spring-tides, the sea still 
rises several feet above the ordinary level of the land, 
and would certainly overflow it to an extent of many 
miles, if it were not prevented by artificial embank- 
ments ; we may therefore form some idea of the extent 
of the deposit; but it would be folly to offer any 
conjecture as to the ages that may have elapsed since 
the commencement of its formation. 



204* BRITISH GUIANA. 

The three great rivers which have given their names 
to the several colonies of the province, derive their 
chief sources from that chain of mountains which rises 
under the equator, near the mouth of the Amazon, in 
longitude 50°, and extends to the west, with an inclina- 
tion northerly, to about 66° west of Greenwich, and 
which may be called the Lesser Cordilleras, as the 
Andes are the Greater. But as it is now certain that 
the River Essequibo has a communication with the 
Oronoko, and that the Oronoko communicates by the 
Rio Negro with the Amazon, it is no great stretch of 
the imagination to suppose, that part of the soil that 
forms the islands in the Essequibo, and which is con- 
sidered the most fertile in the colony, may have been 
brought from a far greater distance. 

There are few rivers, I should suppose, whose 
branches are so extended as that of the" great Amazon ; 
they stretch from the twentieth degree of latitude, 
south of the equator, to about the sixth or seventh 
north, a breadth of 1600 miles; and in length it 
extends from the ocean, in longitude 50° west, to the 
ridge of the Andes in 79°, nearly 1700 miles. 

The Cordilleras, or range of mountains that are 
supposed to form the southern boundary of the 
French, Dutch, and British Guianas, are marked on 
the map which I have given, as commencing on the 
sea-coast, under the Line, and running parallel with 



BRITISH GUIANA. 205 

that coast for about ten degrees of longitude in 
a direction nearly north-west, and for about six 
degrees more in a due west course. The Oronoko 
derives many branches from this last division of the 
chain ; but others pass far beyond it, and independent 
of any supposed communication between the Rios 
Yurillo and Negro, the Guavicira and Rio Meta come 
from the mountains of Bogota ; this river, therefore, 
draws its supplies also from a wide extent of country ; 
but, as compared with the Amazon, it is as the Medi- 
terranean Sea to the great Atlantic Ocean. 

The Guiana Cordilleras do not appear to be removed 
from the coast more than 300 or 400 miles in a direct 
line, and yet the River Demerara, which is considered 
as having a shorter course than either the Essequibo 
or Berbice,has been traced to a greater distance. As 
yet, however, very little is known of the interior of the 
country. 

The Andes are the great chain of mountains which, 
stretching north and south, form a boundary for the 
Pacific Ocean, and from their summits the earth gra- 
dually sinks to the east, until it reaches the Atlantic 
Ocean on the north and south of the Equator. There 
are, undoubtedly, intersecting mountain-ridges that 
change more or less the direction of some of its rivers ; 
but the Amazon, the main artery of this continent, has 
a course nearly due east, drawing its supplies from the 



206 BRITISH GUIANA. 

north and from the south, more especially in the latter 
case, from a distance of more than 1200 miles. While, 
therefore, the earth's surface is an inclined plane from 
about longitude 79° to 50° west, in the due course from 
west to east, we find there is also a descent from lati- 
tude 20° south to within two degrees of the Equator, 
in a direction due north, but that the supplies from 
the north do not come from a greater distance than two 
or three degrees on the north of the Equator. 

The Cordilleras, that inclose the territory of British 
Guiana on the south, are the northern boundary of 
that wide vale through which the Amazon flows; 
while the southern boundary of the same vale may be 
traced in a waving ridge that divides its waters from 
the sources of the Rio de la Plata, which has a course 
nearly due south for more than 1400 miles. 

The Rivers Surinam, Berbice, Demerara, the Esse- 
quibo, and partly the Oronoko, come from this range 
of mountains which separates Guiana from the vale of 
the Amazons, and their courses are all nearly due 
north, except the last, which, after having collected 
its waters from almost every point of the compass, 
holds a course nearly due east for nearly 500 miles, in 
order that it may discharge them into the Gulf of 
Paria. 

I merely allude to these well-known geographical 
details, as illustrating the position, and, in some mea- 



BRITISH GUIANA. 20J 

sure, the formation of British Guiana ; for to whatever 
extent the land may have proceeded from the base of 
the Rocky Mountains when the " Word of Power" 
brought them first into existence, we must be satisfied 
that a large portion of what now forms the solid mate- 
rials of the present colonies has been deposited as the 
detritus of these mountains, and the productions of 
that primitive land which rose along with them. 

In the neighbourhood of the ocean, and for many 
miles inland, the accumulation of decayed vegetable 
matter, mixed with various earthy particles, and form- 
ing one of the richest loams that has ever yet been dis- 
covered, is about 150 feet in depth ; but, as already 
stated, I am not aware of any data that can guide us in 
any conjecture we may form as to the time that may 
have elapsed since the first diluvial deposit took place. 
It has lately been ascertained that, under the capital, 
Georgetown, which stands on the east bank of the De- 
merara River, near its entrance into the Atlantic, there 
is a stratum of wood, consisting of large trees, in a 
state of perfect preservation, at the depth of 100 feet 
from the present surface ; and another stratum of 
similar trees, partly decayed, about seven feet under 
the first. These trees, I have no doubt, were brought 
down from the interior of the country, and collected 
here at the bottom of what was then sea; there is, 
therefore, nothing remarkable in their being found 
here, with other vegetable matters not yet destroyed. 



208 EltlTISH GUIANA. 

But I should like to know the opinion of geologists 
with respect to their ever becoming a coal-formation. 
If heat sufficient to effect the charring or changing of 
these trees and vegetables, and the consolidation of the 
clay and earth, in which they are deposited, was 
brought into action under the pressure of 150 feet of 
superincumbent soil, should we (when the whole had 
cooled down to the common temperature of the earth,) 
find beds of coal and rocks on the banks of the Deme- 
rara, similar to those that now exist on the banks of 
the Humber ? My opinion is, that, sooner or later, a 
subterranean fire may be generated here, which will not 
only change the materials that have been deposited, 
but, by the expansive force of the generated steam or 
gases, cause this now level plain to assume all those 
inequalities of surface, and all the other internal pheno- 
mena of a volcanic country. In the mean time, how- 
ever, it may be fairly considered as a happy and a 
blessed land. It is neither subject to hurricanes, nor 
affected by earthquakes : some old men do say that 
they felt a slight undulating motion of the earth when 
the Caraccas were nearly destroyed, in 1812, and that 
the noise and commotion that occurred shortly after- 
wards in the island of St. Vincent, and of which I have 
already given an account, were more or less heard and 
felt in the colony of Demerara. But the existence 
and steady upright bearing of the many tall and 
slender chimneys which are met with on every estate, 






BRITISH GUIANA. 209 

— many of them of great height, — sufficiently attest 
that this spot of earth has acquired a firm resting-place, 
and has not as yet been subjected to any regular convul- 
sion of nature. The mountains from which the rivers 
of this district arise, and the countries through which 
they pass, are either deficient in those minerals which, 
coming in contact with each other, produce by their 
chemical attractions, a developement of those phe- 
nomena which give rise to earthquakes and volcanoes ; 
or they have not as yet been pressed into such close 
connexion as to cause their action or reaction upon each 
other. 

There are no springs of fresh water within the limits 
of our cultivation, for the clay soil is impermeable ; it 
therefore became necessary to build tanks, and to use 
every means for preserving the rain-water as it fell 
from the clouds. This must have been a matter of 
very serious consideration with the first colonists, and, 
indeed, up to a very late period, had there been a failure 
of the usual wet seasons, the colony would have been 
destroyed. But the talents and exertions of two able 
and excellent men have at last relieved their fellow- 
colonists from all danger of suffering from the changes 
or chances of the weather. 

Dr. M'Twrk, who went to the colony as a profes- 
sional man, and who was, and is, the most able 
physician in the whole province, is equally distin- 
guished as a man of science and of keen observation. 



210 BRITISH GUIANA. 

His herculean frame, active mind, and happy temper- 
ament, enabled him to penetrate into the woods, and 
explore many of the wilds, which were even impassable 
to the native Indians. His zeal and his exertions for 
the improvement of his adopted country, and the 
general benefit of his fellow-colonists, were not likely 
to escape the notice of so able a judge of mankind as 
Sir Benjamin D'Urban, the late Governor of British 
Guiana. The Doctor was, therefore, drawn away 
from his professional pursuits. He became the aide- 
de-camp and privy-councillor of the Governor; and 
although this might, and did, injure him greatly in 
a pecuniary point of view, it proved of the utmost 
importance to the present and future prosperity of the 
community. 

In his wanderings through the woods, as com- 
mandant of the district militia, in search of runaway 
negroes, or European deserters, Dr. M'Turk discovered 
a fresh-water lake of some extent ; and his comprehen- 
sive mind saw at once the practicability of bringing its 
waters, by an artificial canal, to supply not only the 
wants of the capital, but also the many cultivated 
estates through, or near to, which it might pass. 
The Doctor had examined the country with the eye of 
an able engineer, and when he submitted his plans to 
Sir Benjamin D'Urban, they were already so well ma- 
tured, that the work might have instantly commenced. 

An official survey took place, as a matter of form. 



BRITISH GUIANA. 211 

The correctness of Dr. M'Turk's views and estimates 
were most fully proved, and money was subscribed to 
carry them into effect, as also a board formed, of which 
the worthy Doctor was chairman, to uperintend the 
formation of the Lamaha Canal. This important 
and most necessary work was completed in an incredibly 
short space of time ; and a large body of fresh water 
is brought from a distance of many miles, and in a con- 
stant stream, quite sufficient for the supply of George- 
town, and of the whole of that portion of the colony 
through which it passes. It is only justice to this bene- 
factor of his species to record the following letter, which 
has come into my hands, as not less honourable to Dr. 
M'Turk, than to the late Governor of British Guiana- 

King's House, Demerary, 
Sir, \%th September, 1826. 

I have the honour to transmit to you a minute of pro- 
ceedings of the Court of Policy respecting the Fresh Water 
Canal, and to request that you will convene the Committee 
of the Canal, for the purpose of calling together all the pro- 
prietors and representatives concerned in it, and of giving 
effect to the Resolutions of the Court. 

It will not escape the Committee, (although I do not 
perceive that it has been adverted to in the minute,) that the 
first, and most essential perhaps, of the Regulations, which 
they will have to frame, in conjunction with the other 
members of the General Committee, will be one which may 
ensure the digging of that part of the canal which still remains 
unfinished, so as to open its communication with the Lamaha. 
Since it is only when that shall have been completed, that 



212 



BRITISH GUIANA. 



a permanent source of water will have been secured ; expe- 
rience having proved that the supplies of the savannah cease 
to be of avail after a long period of drought. 

Together with my cordial concurrence in the thanks of the 
court to you, and to the committee, for your joint exertions in 
this important work, I desire to express to you, Sir, in par- 
ticular, the high and just sense which I entertain of the 
sagacity with which you suggested the practicability of supply- 
ing Georgetown with water from the Lamaha, and of the 
public spirit and perseverance with which you devoted yourself 
to the task of tracing the windings of the Mahaica, to discover 
the best source of water ; and after that was found, to the 
still more arduous and laborious one (performed with so 
much ability and success,) of laying off and measuring, along 
such a distance, and through the untrodden woods and 
savannahs of this country, the course and direction of the 
intended aqueduct. 

You have render bd a great service to the colony, for which, 
deeply interested as I must ever be in its welfare, I am 
bound to offer you the tribute of my praise, and of my sincere 
acknowledgments. 

I have the honour to be, Sir, 
Your most obedient and most humble servant, 

B. D'Urban. 
To the Hon. M. M Turk, M.B., 

Chairman of the Committee, fyc. 

The other individual whose name will be held in 
grateful recollection by succeeding generations, is 
Major Staples, comptroller of His Majesty's Customs. 
This gentleman, also, endowed with talents and 
enthusiasm of no ordinary cast, had fully convinced 
himself, that fresh water might be obtained by boring 
through the alluvial impervious clay soil into the 



BRITISH GUIANA. 213 

permeable strata of the earth, and that as soon as 
these were reached, the water would rise to the surface, 
as had been proved in what were called the Artesian 
Wells. Major Staples sent to England for machinery ; 
and after many disappointments, and constant appli- 
cation, and a great expense, he succeeded in instructing 
the negroes how to work that machinery ; and at last, 
when he had nearly exhausted his pecuniary resources, 
he happily reached the required depth, and the spark- 
ling liquid rose several feet above the present surface 
of the earth*. The supply has continued most abun- 
dant, and the fountain still flows without intermission, 
or any diminution. 

This water was found to be perfectly fresh and 
palatable, but slightly tasting of iron ; and, on 
analysis, it was discovered, that a considerable quan- 
tity of the carbonate of iron was held in solution, but 
that on being boiled, or exposed to a free circula- 
tion of the atmosphere, it was decomposed and pre- 
cipitated, leaving the water fit for all domestic pur- 
poses. If taken or used as it flows from the fountain, 
it is an agreeable, mild, and most beneficial chaly- 
beate. 



* It has since been observed, that in proportion to the height 
of the tide on the coast, and in the river, so will the column or 
jet of water vary in height, to the extent of several inches ; 
obviously from the increased pressure upon the superincum-. 
bent clav. 



214 BRITISH GUIANA. 

The Governor and Court of Policy rewarded the 
Major for this important discovery with a small 
grant of money ; and he was allowed to erect hand- 
some baths and rooms for drinking these strengthening 
waters. But the majority of the good folks of British 
Guiana are too intent upon acquiring wealth, to 
bestow much time upon such luxuries ; I am there- 
fore afraid, that the temple which the Major has 
erected to the goddess of health has not been as yet a 
profitable concern, and that the honour of being con- 
sidered a benefactor to his country will be the chief 
reward he will receive for his invaluable and impor- 
tant discovery. The success of Major Staples has 
induced many proprietors to bore for water in other 
parts of the province, and they have almost all suc- 
ceeded^ that already one great drawback to their turn- 
ing their uncultivated land into cattle farms has been 
obviated, and fresh beef, which sold four years ago, 
at one shilling the pound, can now be bought for 
sixpence ; and mutton, which till lately could not be 
purchased for less than three shillings, may now be 
had at one shilling per pound *. 

* This was officially notified in the following letter from the 
Government Secretary of British Guiana to the Commissary- 
General, Barbados. 

Government Secretary's Office, 
Sir, 23d December ; 1835. 

I have it in command from His Excellency the Lieu- 
tenant-Governor to acquaint you, that excellent fresh beef mayl 



BRITISH GUIANA. 215 

If the Chinese mode of boring were adopted here, 
it would be found a much more easy and economical 
method ; and as it has been tried, and found to answer 
so well, by M. Sellow, in the neighbourhood of Saar- 
briick, in Germany, I can see no reason why it should 
fail in British Guiana. If the bore were carried further 

be had for the daily supply of the King's troops occupying the 
different posts and barracks in this province, at a price not 
exceeding sixpence per pound, provided only that the con- 
tracts be subdivided and entered into so as to suit the conve- 
nience of persons in the immediate neighbourhood of each 
military station, and not given to one general contractor, as is 
the case at present. 

Sir James Carmichael Smyth would recommend that there 
should be five contractors employed in this colony ; viz. one for 
Eve Leary, York and Albany, Fort William Frederick, and 
Kingston ; one for Capouey ; one for Fort D'Urban ; one for 
Mahaica ; and one for Fort Canje and Fort Wellington : several 
respectable inhabitants have conferred with His Excellency 
upon the subject, and have expressed their willingness to 
supply the posts in their immediate neighbourhood, provided 
only a sufficient quantity of fresh meat should be required 
so as to make it worth their while. 

If a daily issue of fresh meat should not be judged advis- 
able, fresh beef for five days in the week might be contracted 
for. Should you think proper to adopt His Excellency's 
suggestion, when the period arrives for advertising the con- 
tracts, it would be advisable to state that the offers are not 
to exceed sixpence per pound. 

I have the honour to be, 
Sir, 
Your most obedient humble servant, 
H. E. F.Young, Gov. Sec. 



216 BRITISH GUIANA. 

down, I am convinced that a much purer water would 
be obtained, and by means of M. Sellow's apparatus 
they may penetrate to any depth. We know, that by 
boring through the London clay, water will rise to the 
surface as soon as we reach the plastic clay form- 
ation, but it is neither of the same quantity or purity 
as when we penetrate a little deeper, and reach the 
chalk. The same facts will be found to occur in 
British Guiana. A pipe made to pass beyond the 
present ascertained ferruginous strata, will bring the 
stream up in more abundance, and in greater purity, 
from a lower stratum. 

The instrument used by M. Sellow, is a solid cast- 
iron bar, about six feet long, and four inches in 
diameter, armed at its lower end with a cutting chisel, 
and fixed in a hollow cylinder, which has space enough 
to allow the detritus of the perforated strata to be 
received. The solid heavy bar of iron, and its case, 
are attached to the end of a long rope that passes 
over a wheel or pulley, fixed over the spot where the 
hole is to be made ; and as this rope is raised up and 
let down over the wheel, its torsion gives to the iron 
bar to which the chisel is attached a circular motion 
sufficient to vary the application of the cutting edge 
at each descent. When the chamber is full of earth, 
the whole apparatus is raised quickly to the surface 
and unloaded, and then returned to the bore. In 



BEITISH GUIANA. 21J 

China they have gone down to the depth of 1000 
feet ; and the German engineer who has introduced it 
into Europe, says, that he has lately made perforations 
of eighteen inches in diameter, and to a depth of 
several hundred feet 

The rapidity and luxuriance of vegetation require 
to be witnessed in this colony to enable the naturalist 
to appreciate to their full extent the influences of 
light, heat, and moisture, acting upon a rich virgin 
soil. The quantity of vegetable matter elaborated 
from a very limited quantity of earth, in some of the 
plantain-walks, is not to be described. The height 
and circumference of the trees, the enormous load of 
fruit, and the number of trees that have evidently 
sprung from the same root, appeared to me more 
wonderful than any other fact I had witnessed in the 
West Indies. 

The plantain is the chief food of the negro popula- 
tion, and is a most wholesome and nutritious vegetable; 
and, unless in extraordinary dry seasons, they are so 
very abundant, that a day's food may be bought for a 
penny. Salt fish, or a little salt meat, is generally 
eaten with the roasted plantain ; and salt fish is evi- 
dently preferable, and is certainly less pernicious than 
either beef or pork. It affords a far better relish to 
strong farinaceous food, and does not so soon taint the 
vital fluids. The soil here is too rich for raising good 



218 BRITISH GUIANA. 

yams. They become of a great size, and are generally 
strong-tasted and disagreeable. The Indians cultivate 
a species, known in the colony as the Buck-yam, which 
is small and well-flavoured, and makes a very excellent 
food. The sweet potato and cassava root are very 
abundant ; and almost all the fruits and vegetables of 
a tropical climate are found wild, and, when cultivated, 
arrive at great perfection. But Guiana is in no way 
remarkable for its fruits, — they are not cultivated; 
and the brushwood becomes so abundant, wherever the 
land is neglected, that it destroys in a great measure all 
other vegetable productions. When, however, this 
wood is uprooted, and its re-appearance is prevented, 
the surface of the earth becomes covered with an 
abundance of grass, and with a thousand different 
varieties of plants, including almost all the species 
that are found in any other of our colonial possessions. 
The natural grasses are too rank and strong to be 
wholesome, even for cattle, but the Guinea-grass, and 
others, are most productive when cultivated. 

The fields here, and even the forests in the interior, 
are most interesting to the botanist. To the mineralo- 
gist, the cultivated portions of the colony are altogether 
barren, not even a pebble can be found in the mud ; 
and the conchologist may travel for the whole extent 
of the territory and not find a single living shell on 



BRITISH GUIANA. 219 

Of the productions of animated nature, the extent 
and variety are such, that no one as yet has attempted 
to enumerate them. The beauty and variety of the 
birds, the innumerable species of reptiles and insects, 
with the other inhabitants of the rivers and the forests, 
are so extensive, that it will require ages to discover 
them, and would fill volumes to describe them. I 
cannot give more than a very limited catalogue of 
some of the most remarkable varieties of each class ; 
indeed, I shall only mention such as I have myself 
seen, and a few of which I have preserved in my 
little museum. The reader may consult the works 
of Waterton, Handcock, and others. 

The following list of a collection, made by my 
much-esteemed friend, Dr. William Fraser, health- 
officer at Demerara, and the companion of Mr. Water- 
ton in many of his wanderings, will give some idea of 
the variety and of the rarity of many of the species 
found in this territory. It contains, however, but a 
very small sample of the riches of this inexhaustible 

field. 

MAMMALIA. 

Indian Name. English Name. Linncean Name. 

Bees-sa, Black-bearded Monkey, Cercopithecus (biza). 

o„u „ , ,-~i • I Little Spotted, Dark Brown, and ) ^ V1 

Sak-u-winki, | B^M^e^ ' } Cercopithecus. 

Bo-huri, Large Vampire Bat, Vespertilio Vampyrus. 

Ub-u, Guiana Porcupine, Hystrix prehensilis. 

(Loiar i ' I Sl°th> Bradypus tridactylus" 

Yea-si, Armadillo, jDasypus duodecim 

\ cmctas. 

L 2 



220 



BRITISH GUIAXA. 



Indian Name. 
Ca-tita, 
Mur-ku-di, 
Tura-tura, 



Uit-ik-ki, 
quedi, 



Ques- 



Hia-Hia, 

Suri-Suri, 

Bar-is-se, 

Kis-kis, 

Bour-a-di *- 

Scirou, 

Yan-a-kali, 

Hou-tou, 

Hoo-du-di, 

Tau-ar-a-titte, 



Saka-saka-di, 



BIRDS. 

English Name. 
Dark Gray Hawk, 
Horned Owl, 
Screech Owl, 
Barking Owl, 

1 Tyrant Shrike, 

Forked-tailed Shrike, 
Mailed Popinjay, 
Blue-headed Green Parroquet, 
Iron-gray Parroquet, 
Yellow-headed Parroquet, 
Bill Bird, or Large Toucan, 
Black-billed Aracari, 



Linncean Name. 
Falco (vespertilio). 
Strix bubo. 
Strix stridula. 
Strix (latrans). 

Lanius tyrannus. 

Lanius furticatus. 
Psittacus accipitrinus. 
Psittacula (Suri-Suri). 
Psittacula (Baris-se). 
Psittacula (Kis-kis)'. 
Ramphastos tucanus. 
Ramphastos luteus. 
Ramphastos viridis. 
Ramphastos momot. 



Hic-orc-ana, 



Aracari Toucanette, 

Houtou, or Momot, 

Large Red-headed Woodpecker, Picus erythrocephalus 
(Large Red-crested and Speckled J picus tauaratitt e. 
I Woodpecker, J 

Little Brown-spotted Ditto, Picus rufus. 

Little Green-spotted Ditto, Picus viridis. 

Alatli, or Cinereous Kingfisher, Alcedo torquata. 

Alcedo galbula. 
Alcedo niger. 

Blue-creeper Guit-Guit, Certhia cerulea. 

Azure Blue and Black Ditto, Certhia (elegans). 

Green with Black Cap Ditto, C erthia viridis atricapilla 
, King of the Humming-Birds,-. Trochilug Ua# 
\ or lopaz Cohbri, j r 

Ruby-Topaz Humming-Bird, Trochilus moschitus. 

{ a Catcher YeU ° W ^^ ° rFly "} Todus cinereus - 

Ani, or Black Witch, 
(Bald-headed Brown Crow ofl 
\ Guiana, 

White Coir, or Guiana Jay, 

Red-bellied Curucui, 
f Red-throated Tamatia, or 
I Barbet, 

Crested Cassique, 

{ B Yapou, d Yell ° W GaSSi<1Ue ' ° r ]Oriolus persicus. 

{ R jVubl BlaCk CaS8iqUe ' ^Oriolus persieus. 
|Troupjal e ; or Yellow ?l«»tain} 0riolMicteric| ^ 

Yellow-headed Oriole, Oriolus icterocephalus. 

Black, with Yellow Crown, Ja-} 0r i i us Uo luteug> 
pacani, > r 

( Cuculus rufo et ceruleo 



Huna-way-ducatu Green Jacamar, 
Black Jacamar, 
Ya-wara-ceri, 



Kara-bimitti, 

Hona-bimitti, 

Tic-tic, 

Huie, 

Qu-a-o, 

Hibi-birou, 
Cu-i-a, 

Arawallakin, 

Boun-ni, 

Asa-wa-koo, 

Ya-bana, 

Wak-we-ana, 



Crotophaga ani. 

;Corvus quao. 

Corvus Cayanus. 
Trogon curucui. 

► Bucco tamatia. 

Oriolus cristatus. 



Rufous-backed Cuckoo, 



\ mixtuo. 



BRITISH GUIANA. 



221 



Indian Name. 



Quak-cu-ara, 

Quo-ras-iri, 

Hoa-hori, 

Ha-way-arurruru 
Dara, Campanero 
Hi-ki-li-kan, 
Wal-la-baba, 
Ha-we-ari, (two 

kinds,) 
Pi-Pi-a, 
Abui-aliki, 
Mac-ku-yu-du, 
Sac-ki, 



Cow-an-arro, 

Salu-lu-petiti, 
Hadi-au-seru, 

Wa-qua-raio, 
Mac-i-di, 

Marn-baba-ba, 

Dura-quar-a, 
Cury-cury, 

Houn-nu-li, or 

Tacurou, 
Cari-we-ma, 
Asi-ruli-kin, 



U-ana, 

Cayman, 

Gas-i-keru, 

Couna-Coushi, 



English Name. 

Rain Cuckoo, 

Speckled Puff-back, or Nuthatch 

Black-headed Nuthatch, 

Common Thrush, 
fBelfrey Alarum, or Ground 
I Thrush, 

White-eared Anter, or Thrush, 

Bell-Bird, or White Cotinga, 

Fire-Bird, or Scarlet Cotinga, 

Pompadour Cotinga, 
I Purple-bellied and Purple- ] 
' throated Blue-Riband, 

Pye-Pia, or Grey Cotinga, 

Yellow Grosbeak, 

Red-breasted Madow-Bunting, 

Blue Sac-ki, 

Purple Sac-ki, 

Blue and Black Tanagre, > 

Black, with Yellow Crown, and' 
breasted, 

Blue Pit-Pit, 

Fork-tailed Fly-catcher, 
JCock of the Rock,— Gallo del 
I Rio Negro, 

Gold-headed Manaking, 

White-crowned Manaking, 

Nut-cracker Manaking, 

Wak-ario, or, " Who are You ?" 
I " Whip-poor- Will," or Great 
1 Goat-Sucker, 
I " Will-come-go," — the Lesser 
1 Ibijan, 

Guiana Partridge, 

Scarlet Ibis, or Curlew, 

Lapwing Plover, 

[ White-streaked Green Stork, 

Blue and Green Sultana Hen, 
Water-Dog Bird, or Grebe, 

AMPHIBIA. 
Guana, 

Common Alligator, 

Rattle-Snake, 

I Bosch-Master (a fine specimen, 
1 94 or 10 feet long). 

FISHES. 

Sea Hedge-Hog, 



Linncca Name. 

Cuculus pluvialis, 
Sitta maculata. 
Sitta atracapilla. 
T urdus Guianensis. 

Turdus tinniens. 

Turdus auritus. 
Ampelis carunculata. 
Ampelis carnifex. 
Ampelis pompadour. 

Ampelis cotinga. 

Ampelis cinerea. 
Loxia Guianensis flava. 
Emberiza rubi pectora. 
Fringilla cerulea. 
Fringilla negro purpurea 
Tanagra Guianensis ce- 
rulea. 

Tanagra chloro capilla. 

Motacilla cerulea. 
Muscicapa tyrannus. 

Pipra rupi colla. 

Pipra capito fulvo. 
Pipra leuco capilla. 
Pipra guttural is. 
Caprimulgus Guianensis 

.Caprimulgus grandis. 

.Caprimulgus acutus. 

Tetrao Guianensis. 
Tantalus ruber. 
Tringa squatarola. 

Ardea virescens. 

Fulica viride cerulea. 
Colymbus cinereus. 



Lacerta iguana. 
Lacerta alligator. 
Crotalus horridus. 



Dioden hystrix. 



222 BRITISH GtflAHA. 

Every creek or inlet upon the shore is crowded with 
the beautiful Curry-Curry, and other birds of that 
species. The bright scarlet colour of one y contrasted 
with the snowy whiteness of others, and the variegated 
plumage of many, cannot fail to attract the attention 
of every stranger as he sails up the river towards 
Georgetown. 

I am quite satisfied, that many of the swallows 
that leave England in the end of September, or 
first weeks of October, travel as far as the shores of 
British Guiana ; but the route they take, or the time 
occupied in their aerial voyage, are questions on which 
I can offer no opinion. On the 23d of November, 
1834, I find it entered in my journal at Demerara, 
that for some days previously I had observed swallows 
for the first time. That some were evidently the 
swift, or martin, but the greater number were the 
common house-swallow of Europe. They were not in 
any large numbers, nor did they appear to be stationary. 
Near to the house in which I resided, and close upon 
the sea-shore, there grew a silk cotton-tree, of great 
size ; and it was upon the widely-spread branches of 
this tree, which at the date mentioned were partly 
without leaves, that I discovered them early in the 
morning, and where they generally rested during the 
day. Towards evening they would occasionally hunt 
for flies, but with a sluggish drowsy flight, as if tired 



BRITISH GUIANA, 223 

and worn out; and what was remarkable, they had 
always disappeared the second morning, and it was 
not perhaps for a day or two afterwards that I would 
find, on coming down stairs at sunrise, the branches of 
the silk cotton-tree again occupied. 

After the 26th of November, I do not observe that 
there are any more instances of these arrivals ; and 
from the time that they first attracted my attention, up 
to this last date, the wind was steady from the north- 
east. The next remark which I have recorded of the 
swallow, is on the 20th of January, 1835. They were 
then in immense numbers, and seemed revelling with 
delight on some anticipated change. I watched them 
for hours sporting on the banks of a large canal, near 
where the large silk cotton-tree before mentioned 
was. Their manner of flying, rapid gyrations, and 
joyful chirp or cry, reminded me exactly of many a 
scene I had witnessed on the banks of the Thames at 
Hampton Court. There was a bridge, too, over the 
canal here, and it required no great stretch of fancy to 
believe, that I had seen the same lively birds chasing 
each other in sport under the arches of Hampton 
Court or Richmond Bridges, as they were now doing 
under and over this on the Cummingsburg Canal. 
As night closed in they seemed to settle upon the 
branches of the silk cotton-tree, and amongst the 
brushwood on the banks of the canal, but at daylight 



224 BRITISH GUIANA. 

next morning not a single swallow remained behind. 
These are facts carefully noted at the moment they 
were observed. Throughout the whole summer, one 
or two of the swallow tribe might be seen occasionally? 
but it was only in November and the end of January 
that they appeared in numbers, and then, as was 
abundantly evident, only as birds of passage. The 
swallow was the only European bird I saw in British 
Guiana, or in any of the West India Islands. 

The most common of all the winged insects in the 
West Indies, seemed to be varieties of the Libellula, 
or dragon-fly ; some very large. 

In Barbados and the Islands I observed them hi 
particular places only, attracted, as was evident, by some 
peculiar fruit or food ; but in my Demerara journal I 
find, under the date of 30th July, that immense numbers 
were passing my residence in a column of great extent, 
moving slowly, but in a constant stream, towards the 
north-east. They were flying very low, not above 
twenty feet from the earth's surface, and seemed very 
small and weakly. August 28th, the entry is, " Dra- 
gon-fly again, very numerous to-day ; but they keep 
high in the air, passing over the tops of the tallest trees. 
There were several showers of rain yesterday, but none 
to-day, and the sea-breeze (north-east) has been pretty 
strong and constant. 29th August, — Not a dragon- 
fly to be seen. The air now (2 p.m.) is very hot and 



BRITISH GUIANA. 225 

sultry, and within this hour an innumerable flock of a 
beautiful yellowish-white butterfly has made its appear- 
ance, and are sporting in every direction among the 
branches of the tall trees, the low brushwood, and the 
long grass, — wind westerly ; — 3 p.m., wind now from 
the east, and the dragon-fly has again appeared? 
moving against the sea-breeze." I do not find any 
further notice of the dragon-fly till the 8th January, 
1835, when it is stated, — " Noon^fair and cloudy, with 
wind strong from the north-east ; for the last half-hour 
the dragon-fly has been passing to the south-east in 
great numbers, not flying high ; when first observed, 
30th July, they were moving in a north-east course, 
equally numerous. To-day, their direction is due 
south-east. August 14th, — After a shower of rain, a 
few dragon-flies observed passing to the south-east, 
but now they fly higher." After this date they were 
no longer observed. I here add another extract from 
my journal : — " Nov. 30th, 1834, — About seven o'clock 
this evening, during a heavy shower, with a strong 
breeze from the east, the windows were nearly broken 
in by a flight of beetles, called here the 6 Hard- 
back.' Wherever the windows were open they nearly 
filled the rooms, and in many instances extinguished 
both candles and lamps, as they evidently made for the 
spot where light appeared. In one of the large globe 
glass shades, which protected the lamp over the mess- 

l 5 



226 BRITISH GUIANA. 

room table of the 86th regiment, at Eve Leary bar- 
racks, 475 were taken, as in a trap. How far this 
swarm extended I have not learned, but at my quar- 
ters, which was perhaps half a mile from the mess- 
room of the 86th regiment, they were nearly as nume- 
rous, though the wind did not blow from the barracks 
towards my house. The time occupied in passing was 
about half an hour. 1 '' 

The sand-flies begin to be very troublesome towards 
the end of January ; they seem to move in clouds 
along the coast. The mosquito evidently had its set 
times for appearing in countless numbers, though, 
unfortunately, it was never altogether absent. 

When the mosquitos first swarm, they are very 
troublesome and annoying; and it is only by the 
smoke of grass, or green wood, that a room can be 
made habitable. The ova of this insect are deposited 
on the leaves of aquatic plants, or on the surface of 
stagnant water. The young fry live for some time in 
the water, when it is scarcely possible to drink a mouth- 
ful without swallowing a dozen. They are like the 
jumpers in decayed cheese, as they move in the water 
by jer^s, and not regular swimming. The time that 
they remain in this state I could not ascertain; but 
when it is accomplished, they rise from the pools in my- 
riads, as winged insects, and are then most blood-thirsty. 

The number and variety of frogs which swarm in the 



BRITISH GUIANA. 22? 

ditches and canals around Georgetown are scarcely to 
be credited, and the croaking they make during the 
night, and even in the daytime, is unceasing. There 
is a species, called the Whistler, which has a sharp 
distinct yelp, or whoop ; but the usual noise is a con- 
tinuous sound of hoarse or bass notes, that occasionally 
have something of a musical cadence, rising at times 
into a loud and somewhat mournful swell, that gra- 
dually sinks, and "in hollow murmurs dies away." One 
particular frog evidently leads the choir in every pond, 
while his companions join in the chorus. The strain 
is taken up by a thousand separate communities, and 
is prolonged throughout the whole night. 

If I except one little brown bird, of the wren species, 
that used to welcome the rising sun with its sweet little 
notes of praise, soft and plaintive like the robin in Eng- 
land, I can truly say I did not hear anything like " the 
song of birds" in British Guiana. The beauty and 
variety of the feathered tribes in this province have 
often been remarked upon, but the care and ingenuity 
with which many of them provide for their own safety, 
and that of their young, one might almost suppose was 
the result of reason and some reflection. Those who 
build on high trees always choose the extremity of a 
suitable branch on the lee-side of the tree, and one that 
is in some measure shaded or covered by a larger branch 
above, but which does not touch or come in contact 



228 BRITISH GUIANA. 

with that upon which the nest is placed. Every nest 
is protected by a roof, or covering of thatch, through 
which no rain can penetrate. I have watched for 
hours the progress of their building-operations, on the 
trees near my residence ; it did not seem in any way 
to be a joint concern, for the lady evidently had it all 
to herself, and she was indefatigable in her labours. 
The covering, or the thatched roof, was the first 
portion completed ; it was composed of coarse grass 
or straw, laid over the principal stem of the branch, 
which formed the roof-tree, and in sufficient quantity 
to throw off the heaviest rain. As soon as this cover- 
ing was completed, the proper nest was commenced, 
and seemed to be composed of the finest grass, hair, 
feathers, and moss, selected with great care. How 
these nests were attached, whether to the branch or 
to the covering, I had no means of ascertaining ; but 
they appeared to be fixed in a secure manner, and, 
when once completed, to require only a little repairing, 
or touching up, for every succeeding family. 

The birds here hatch twice in every year, if not 
oftener, and generally commence building or repair- 
ing their nests as soon as the rainy season ceases. 
During the heavy rains, the old nests are resorted to 
as a place of shelter, and as frequently by stranger 
birds as by the original builders, or any portion of 
their families ; but I never could perceive that they 



BRITISH GUIANA. 229 

were kept hold of by force, or that any attempt was 
made to dispossess the owner, when the season arrived 
for their proper occupation. 

A few additional extracts from my diary will give 
the reader more correct information than any statement 
made from recollection. " August 30, 1834. — For some 
days I have observed the yellow-breasted plantain-bird 
busy building her nest near the extremity of a branch 
of one of the large oronoko-trees in the garden. I have 
watched the proceedings of this bird with some atten- 
tion : she comes down to the ground, picks up a straw 
or two, or a tuft of grass, with which she flies up into 
the tree, but never to that branch where the building 
is going on ; she generally goes to the very topmost, 
or a distant branch. I have timed her by the watch, 
and find she will often take three or four minutes to 
move from branch to branch, and in carefully survey- 
ing all around her, before she steals to the nest to 
deposit her store : she does not consume much time 
in placing the materials. Sept. 11. — The nest has 
been completed some time, and the bird is now 
hatching." 

The little wren which I have already mentioned, 
seems to be so alarmed and annoyed by what is here 
called the lazy-bird (the Cuculus rufo), that she 
seeks and avails herself as much as possible of the pro- 
tection of man, building her nest in the most fre- 



230 BRITISH GUIANA. 

quented rooms of the house. One actually hatched 
and reared her young brood under a table in the mess- 
room of the 25th regiment, at Eve Leary barracks, a 
room frequented by hundreds daily, and where noise 
and uproar generally prevailed for half the night, yet 
nothing seemed to disturb her. To hang up an empty 
soda-water bottle in the open viranda is considered by 
this bird as a great boon, as in it she finds a retreat 
which the lazy-bird cannot reach; yet it is a most re- 
markable fact, that should the lazy-bird succeed in 
getting her egg placed in the little wren's nest, she 
not only hatches it, but is most indefatigable in pro- 
curing food for the ravenous maw of the alien monster 
that has destroyed her own natural offspring. 

Here, as in Europe, the young of the foster-mother 
disappear as soon as the young cuckoo is hatched. 
Can it be a recollection of the cruel fate of her own 
young, and of the additional labour she will have to 
undergo, that makes her thus so persevering in her 
endeavours to escape from the pursuit of her remorse- 
less persecutor? I saw a lazy-bird to-day follow a 
wren into the drawing-room at Camp House, and was 
with difficulty driven out, and prevented from taking 
possession of the wren's nest." 

Though forests, and even individual trees (to the 
casual observer), generally appear green and covered 
with leaves, I observe, by attending carefully to the 



BRITISH GUIANA. 231 

changes they undergo, that they shed their leaves regu- 
larly. I find entered in the diary the following :— 
* Nov. 23, 1834, — rain almost every night for the last 
fortnight; vegetation has sprung up wonderfully during 
the last week, and the earth's surface is again of a lively 
green ; some trees are nearly stripped of all their leaves, 
while others of the same species have a full fresh fo- 
liage."- — " December 26, — no rain for two days, but 
on the 21st and 22nd it fell in torrents, with the wind 
at west and north-west, and thermometer at 73 and 
75. Some birds have been building their nests for the 
last week. r) " February 1, 1835, — there are two silk 
cotton-trees growing within a short distance of this 
house, and about a hundred yards apart from each 
other. This day one is as bare of leaves, and has as 
wintry an appearance as any forest- tree in England at 
Christmas; the other is clothed in the fresh green 
foliage of Midsummer." " February 5, — the silk cot- 
ton-tree, which on the first instant was naked and bare, 
is now loaded with leaves of a dark-green hue, and as 
fully expanded as those of any tree in England in the 
month of June." " February 12, — the rains seem 
over; all the birds are now busy building their nests. 
The pair of plantain-birds that I noticed on the 30th 
of August, are repairing their former building, while 
another pair of the same species have selected a tree 
close to the window where I am writing these notes, 



232 BRITISH GUIANA. 

and are labouring hard to complete their work; — can 
they be of the brood of last September ?" " Feb. 20, 
— the birds are now hatching ; the yellow butterflies 
are still numerous ; a green grasshopper has become 
very common, and a small white butterfly has just made 
its appearance." 

During dry weather here the breeze is steady and 
pleasant, dense fleecy clouds flit across the heavens, 
almost constantly obscuring the sun's direct rays, and 
affording a pleasant and even cool shade at noon. 
There was nothing of this at Barbados ; it was either 
the fierce fiery glare of the sun, or a dark lowering 
cloud charged with rain, which always descended in 
torrents. " Feb. 22, — I have continued for the last 
hour watching the progress of an Ichneumon fly, 
called here ' the Mason Bee,' in building one of her 
villages or collection of breeding-houses in the centre 
of the ceiling of my dining-room. There were two 
days of previous investigation, not only of the ceiling, 
but of every part of the walls of the room, before the 
spot appeared to be decided upon. This, however, 
seems to have been done last night, for this morning 
as soon as it was light the building commenced. The 
houses are formed of clay, tempered with some gummy 
j± liquid ; the foundation is laid in a circle, and 
f >, rises in the form of a cone, thus : — a is the 
^ ~* entrance, left open like a chimney ." 



BRITISH GUIANA. 233 

It is not often that the bee builds on the ceiling; 
she generally prefers the panel above the room-door, or 
one of the side-posts, and will sometimes erect ten or a 
dozen of these separate habitations, and they are 
always placed in a crucial form, thus — 

O O 

ooooo o 

§ or thus- OOOgOOO 

o o 

o 

and when fewer in number, they will stand thus— 
°q° or thus— OOO 

o o o 

One good old lady took up her position within a 
foot of the sofa on which I was accustomed to lounge 
during the extreme heat of the day. I therefore could 
watch all her motions without any trouble. I copy 
here the memorandum made at the time : " House 
completely built in about three hours ; diameter of the 
foundation-circle 6-8ths of an inch, height when com- 
pleted, 5-8ths, and door or chimney projecting scarcely 
l-8th. I could not decide whether more than one bee 
was occupied in the construction, because they are so 
much alike ; but there never have two appeared at the 
same time." When the building was finished, it was 
left for the remainder of the day to consolidate, and it 
soon became quite hard and dry. Next morning* as 
soon as the sun was up, I found the labourer of the 



234 BRITISH GUIANA. 

preceding day arrive, and in her arms a long slender 
green caterpillar. She approached the open door or 
chimney, but did not rest on it, for while hovering on 
the wing she contrived to push the head of the cater- 
pillar into the hole, and then gradually, and by piece- 
meal, to force in the whole body. As soon as this 
was fairly out of sight, she took her departure, and 
in five minutes returned with another victim. I counted 
seven of these caterpillars pushed into the same build- 
ing. The eighth time she returned without a cater- 
pillar, but with a load of clay, with which in an instant 
she closed up the open door, and immediately began 
to lay a new foundation. This she finished before 
noon, and left it to dry for the rest, of the day. Next 
morning I saw her bringing the caterpillars, but did 
not remain to count them. 

I allowed the process to go on for four days, when 
with a sharp table-knife I removed the first nest from 
the wainscot, and found the ova hatched, and the 
caterpillars, in whose bodies they had been deposited, 
nearly all destroyed by the young grubs. In the second 
the ova had not burst, and in the third the cell was 
quite crammed with the still fresh bodies of the green 
caterpillars. I found in the huts that had not been 
disturbed, the wall broken on one side or other, and 
that when taken down they were quite empty. Here 
then we find the insect first preparing a prison for the 



BRITISH GUIANA. 235 

caterpillars, in whose bodies she deposits her ova for 
the purpose of being hatched, and which bodies also 
supply the young with food, until able to destroy the 
wall of the building, and find nourishment elsewhere. 
To the Ichthyologist, the rivers and shores of 
British Guiana are rather a barren field; they are not 
frequented by any large numbers, or any great variety, 
of fish fit for food. The Snook and the Grouper 
are both excellent, and a small white mullet when in 
season is tolerable. Prawns when taken at low water 
are reckoned very good; but as yet the fish market is 
very badly supplied. There are, however, one or two 
inhabitants of the waters that are rather interesting. 
The Cayman and the Manatee* seldom come within 
the boundaries of cultivation, though they are met with 
higher up the river, and in the creeks. Sharks are very 
abundant and most voracious, and the human being 
that accidentally falls into the river is almost instantly 
carried off. By far the most numerous and most con- 
stant visiters of the canals and mud-shores are what are 
called the four-eyed fish. They are, I suppose, the same 
that are mentioned under that name, as common at Su- 
rinam, — the anableps. They are said to be viviparous, 
but this I doubt. The fish I allude to are seldom 
more than six inches in length, with a large broad flat 

* Trichecus Manati. 



236 BRITISH GUIANA. 

head, with the body tapering down to a point at the tail. 
They move in considerable shoals, and seem to congre- 
gate most where the stream is foulest, moving up the 
canals when the first ripple of the tide raises the mud 
at the bottom ; or collecting in great numbers at the 
mouths of the canals when the tide is out, and seem to 
luxuriate in what is more a thick mire than muddy 
water. What gives them the appearance of having 
four eyes is a division of the cornea into two parts, by 
a narrow membranous band, each division appearing to 
have its own pupil and crystalline lens. The division 
is horizontal, and one pupil is considerably larger than 
the other. 

On approaching the river on a fine morning, the 
surface of the sea is often covered with what every 
seaman knows as the Portuguese Man-of-War, and the 
reflected sun-beams from their expanded air-bladders 
afford an endless variety of the most brilliant colours. 

In the barrack-yard at Kingston there is a large 
pond which has been formed for the convenience of the 
soldiers, and to preserve water to wash their clothes 
and barrack-rooms. It has no communication with 
any ditch or canal ; it receives no water but from the 
clouds, and gives off none except by evaporation, or 
what is taken by the military for domestic purposes; 
yet I find it stated in my journal on the fifth of De- 
cember, 1834, that this pond was swarming with the 



BRITISH GUIANA. 237 

fry of the white mullet. The question which naturally 
suggested itself was, how were the ova conveyed here ? 
The nearest canal or trench to which the mullet could 
have access for spawning, is at least twenty yards from 
the margin of this pond. I therefore consider it impos- 
sible for the fish to have made their way by land. 
Could the ova be carried up by some water-spout, and 
descend with the rain ? I doubt this ; and, indeed, the 
only probable solution of the fact is that the frogs 
feed upon the impregnated ova of the fish deposited in 
the salt-water canals, and carry them into the pond, 
where they pass through the intestines without having 
undergone any change. And as this pond was gene- 
rally crowded with frogs of all sizes, from the Cra- 
pauds to the Whistler, there could be no difficulty in 
accounting for the large quantities of such ova that 
had evidently been brought to this rendezvous. 

With these remarks I conclude this part of my 
subject, and shall now proceed to a consideration of 
the several nations of the human race that are con- 
sidered as indigenous to this corner of the world. 

Within the limits of British Guiana, there are five 
distinct tribes, or nations, of the human species, who 
have each their separate territories, in which as yet 
they reign supreme, and who roam at liberty through 
the woods and wilds in search of a precarious subsist- 
ence, or for objects which they have learned will be 



238 BRITISH GUIANA. 

purchased by the settlers on their immediate borders. 
For the purpose of traffic, there are generally some 
of each nation in or near Georgetown : — 1. The Arro- 
waaks, on the east bank of the Demerara River, are 
nearest to our cultivation, and the most frequent 
visiters in the colony. 2. The Accawai are the 
neighbours of the Arrawaaks, on the west of the 
Demerara. 3. The Carabeece, the original people 
who sent their colonies to the islands in their neigh- 
bourhood, and have given a name to these islands, and 
to the sea that contains them. This nation ^inhabits 
chiefly the banks of the Essequibo. 4. The War- 
rows, who live between the River Pomaroon and the 
Oronoko. And, 5. The Maccusi, who dwell far in- 
land. The latter nation is the least known, and is con- 
sidered the most treacherous and savage of the whole. 

There are two or three other nations that are occa- 
sionally met with by travellers in the interior, but they 
are placed too near the Cordillera mountains to find 
their way to the Atlantic coast. Those most fre- 
quently seen are named the Paramcjni, the Atta- 
raya, and the Attamaka. 

On the 27th of January, 1836, I had a long inter- 
view with six natives of the Carabeece tribe, and pur- 
chased of them a few bows and arrows ; indeed, they 
had nothing else for sale, except a common netted 
hammock, and some pieces of wood, which I believe 



BRITISH GUIANA. 239 

they considered as charms. They were all fine, well- 
formed, powerful men, though low in stature; one, 
who spoke a few words of English, was about forty 
years of age, — all the others were under twenty-five. 
Their native dress consisted of a piece of calico, about 
three inches broad, tied round the loins, to which was 
attached a small bag of blue cloth before ; and a 
narrower strip of the same calico, from a yard to two 
yards in length, behind. One or two had their long 
black hair tied " en queue" These were the oldest ; 
with the youngsters it hung loose in all directions. 
They had all put on some temporary covering for the 
occasion : some had an old shawl, others a fragment of 
an old Guernsey shirt, or a portion of a woman's petti- 
coat, wrapt round their middle, and which descended 
about mid-thigh; but these robes were only thrown 
over their usual dress, for though the bag was hidden 
and the tail folded up, they were still there, and no 
sooner had they left the city than the rags were taken 
off and carefully folded up, and the ribbon-piece 
streamed from behind like a monkey's tail. He was 
considered the greatest dandy amongst his fellows who 
had the longest tail, or who had acquired wealth 
enough to purchase a silk ribbon instead of the striped 
common calico. 

On the 28th of January, I had a visit from a large 
party of the Arrowaaks, consisting of men, women, and 
children. They wear the same dress, or rather un- 



240 BRITISH GUIANA. 

dress, as the Carabeece, with the exception as the taiL 
The men had the blue bag, but the ladies wore a white 
apron, — the children, nil. : they have a milder expres- 
sion of countenance than the Carabeece, and their 
young women are not without some winning charms. 
There was one woman that appeared old, with a young 
baby at her back, which she informed me was her 
own child, while her daughter stood beside her, a 
mother also, with a son more than two years old. The 
Arrowaaks are of a lighter tawny colour than the 
Carabeece. The men were of larger size, but more 
clumsily put together, and more pot-bellied ; the whole, 
however, were strong healthy men and women, evi- 
dently living in a wholesome atmosphere, and not much 
exposed to any of those noxious influences which un- 
dermine the constitution, and destroy animal life. 

I do not believe that any of this tribes, or nations, 
of native Indians in this portion of the great continent 
of South America are very numerous. The Arro- 
waaks told me that their nation consisted of seventeen 
separate clans, or families ; that each clan was subject 
in all things to its chief or patriarch ; but I could not 
make out that there was any chief ruler, or king, over 
the whole nation. Morality is at a low ebb amongst 
most of them, and chastity scarcely esteemed a virtue, 
until after the young lady is married ; then, indeed, 
her husband, if he has not already too many wives, 
will look strictly after her conduct, 



BRITISH GUIANA. 241 

Every man is at liberty to marry as many wives as 
he pleases, and to dismiss them, I believe, whenever 
he thinks proper. They are a lazy indolent race, spend 
most of their time in their hammocks, and are seldom 
roused to any exertion except by hunger, or some 
other physical want. I think they must have fallen 
off in size, for few of the men exceed five feet six 
inches, and the women may be said to average five 
feet in height; they are, however, in general well 
made, and whether their deformed offspring are de- 
stroyed or allowed to perish I know not, but none are 
permitted, so far as I could learn, to grow up to man- 
hood. Attempts are now making to introduce into 
their settlements some knowledge of letters, and of 
religion ; but as yet little progress has been made 
with those that are even nearest to our borders. 

At the commencement of the revolution in Spanish 
South America, a considerable tribe of native Indians, 
who had been civilized and converted to the catholic 
faith by the Jesuit missionaries, left their original 
country, and, moving across the Oronoko, settled on 
what is called the Carabean coast of British Guiana. 
There they have remained in quiet possession of a 
large tract of country, and of late measures have been 
adopted for improving their condition, and for esta- 
blishing amongst them ministers and teachers of the 
Gospel. 

M 



242 BRITISH GUIANA. 

The early Dutch planters considered it a matter of 
sound policy to choose their mistresses, or concubines, 
from the young ladies of the olive hue, and thus to 
keep up a sort of connexion or relationship with the 
native tribes ; and in order to instil into their minds a 
deadly hatred and dread of the black Africans. There 
was worldly wisdom in all this ; for, by keeping these 
people at enmity, and in constant dread of each other, 
the African slave dared not to escape into the woods, 
as he well knew he would be instantly destroyed by 
the natives, or sent back in chains to endure tortures 
worse than death. But notwithstanding the exertions 
thus made to keep the two people separate and dis- 
tinct, there are many individuals in British Guiana in 
whom the African and American blood is intimately 
mixed. From the opportunities which I had of seeing 
some of those individuals, I would say that the breed 
was improved, and that they formed a more intelligent 
class, and were finer animals, than either the genuine 
black or the perfectly-pure copper-skin. Even with 
the white man, the offspring of the American is much 
more perfect than any breed between the African 
and European, in all that regards mental and bodily 
qualities. 

The Indians at all times, and even the Africans 
in this colony, are extremely fond of showing their 
persons in the robes which Adam and Eve wore 
" before their eyes were opened ;" and it requires all 



BRITISH GUIANA. 243 

the exertions of a tolerably well-regulated police to 
compel them to go clothed, even in the streets of the 
metropolis. In the country, the negroes never think 
of such a thing as clothes, except on a Sunday or 
holiday, and then no men or women can show more 
splendid or gaudy dresses. When the Africans do 
dress, their delight is in finery, and even the best of its 
kind. The Indian nations, on the contrary, do not 
seem to have any relish for fine clothes ; nor are they 
disposed to encumber their bodies with covering of any 
kind. 

There is a large house, or " Logic," as it was called 
by the Dutch, in Georgetown, which has always been 
the head-quarters, or resting-place, of the natives 
when they visit the capital. Here their hammocks 
are slung, and here they pick up any rag, or portion 
of a dress, that they can get hold of, in order to have 
a sufficient covering to be allowed to appear in the 
streets, to sell their birds and such other curiosities as 
they may have brought from the interior; but except, 
as I have said, a piece of calico, of some gaudy colour, 
and occasionally a ribbon " to make a tail," they 
seldom lay out their money on dress. They do not 
seem to have any great talent for the mechanical arts. 
It is chiefly a kind of basket, made of split reed or 
grass, and rough models of their own habitations made 
of wood, with bows and arrows, that they manufacture ; 

m 2 



244 BEITISH GUIANA. 

they seldom bring any other articles of their own manu- 
facture for sale. They move upon the rivers in light 
canoes, hollowed out of the trunk of a single tree, 
pushed on by a paddle instead of the oar. Their 
townships are of no great extent, and their cultivation 
very limited ; they live chiefly by hunting and fish- 
ing, and such fruits as the earth produces of her own 
accord. The only vegetables they do cultivate are 
the cassava-root, and a very fine species of yam, — 
" the Buck-yam,' 1 — Buck being the common term for 
native. 

The Dutch planters employed none but female 
slaves as in-door servants, and, up to a late period, 
it was their custom to compel the young women 
to attend upon themselves and their guests at table 
in the aforesaid dress of Mother Eve : they main- 
tained, that it tended greatly to keep these young 
females virtuous ; for so long as they remained inno- 
cent they never expressed any desire for a covering, 
but, as was the case from the beginning, they no 
sooner had sinned than they found out that they were 
naked. But all such barbarous customs have now 
been abolished, and the few Dutch that still hold 
estates in the colony allow their servants to dress as 
others, and are only remarkable for having the most 
orderly and best-behaved domestics in the whole pro- 
vince, and for their unbounded and kind-hearted 
hospitality. 






245 

CHAPTER XV. 
MEDICAL STATISTICS. 

CLIMATE— DISEASES COLONY NOW HEALTHY CLIMATE RE- 
GULAR CHIEF CAUSES OF SICKNESS AND MORTALITY 

AMONGST BRITISH TROOPS BARRACKS AND FOOD DRS, 

JACKSON AND FERGUSSON's VALUABLE REPORTS LITTLE 

ATTENTION PAID TO MEDICAL OPINIONS BY MILITARY 
COMMANDERS FATAL CONSEQUENCES. 

In the early stages of colonization, the pestilential 

vapours arising from the literally boiling mud and 

undrained marshes of this low and extended coast, 

must have proved very destructive of human life, and 

none but a native of Walcheren could possibly have 

survived above one season. Tradition, indeed, assures 

us, that in those days even the Dutchman would not 

put himself to the expense of a new coat until he 

found he was safe at the end of the sickly season, and 

that the first moon in October had shown her horns. 

Some doctor of these ancient days has recorded for 

the information of his countrymen what they had to 

expect on their first arrival. The original was in good 

Hollands, or Low Dutch, but the translation I have 

met with runs as follows :-— 

In July you may die, 
In August you must, 
In September remember, 
In October all's over. 



246 



BRITISH GUIANA. 



But "on a change tout celaC the sickly season has 
not lost the whole of its power, it is still accompanied 
by much sickness, but, under proper management and 
judicious treatment, the mortality even of August is 
not more than in any other month. We have here one 
of the most striking effects of the influence of cultiva- 
tion upon climate that could possibly be adduced. 

In addition, however, to what may be called the 
Marsh-poison, the irregular lives of Europeans in the 
olden times must have added considerably to the 
annual mortality. Men first took spirits in the morn- 
ing by way of precaution against the dangers of the 
damp climate, as the Dutch and Highlanders gene- 
rally do, and found the practice beneficial. They 
increased the dose because they liked it, and re- 
peated it for the sake of good fellowship, and in this 
way it may be said they were constantly and habi- 
tually more or less intoxicated. Hence when the seeds 
of disease were introduced into their heated and fever- 
ish blood, their course under the influence of a tropical 
sun was very rapid, and the end fatal. As cultivation 
advanced and draining improved, the sources of the 
pestilence were at last in a great measure dried up ; 
and now that regularity, good order, and sobriety, are 
strictly attended to, I hesitate not to affirm that 
British Guiana is the healthiest colony in the West 
Indies; and, after an European has formed a little 



BRITISH GUIANA. 247 

acquaintance with the mosquitos and sand-flies, it will 
be found also by far the most pleasant to live in. 

The temperature is remarkably uniform, the ther- 
mometer seldom varying above one or two degrees at 
any season of the year. The trade-winds blow steadily 
for about nine months from the east and north-east, 
changing in July, August, and September, to the 
south-east and south ; these are called the land-winds, 
and this the unhealthy season. The average heat at 
Georgetown in summer is 86 degrees of Fahrenheit, 
in the shade; in winter it falls to 82 or 83 : there were 
usually two wet seasons, the short one in January and 
February, and the long one commencing with June ; 
but, as already stated, cultivation has greatly altered 
these seasons, both as to the intensity and duration of 
the rains. 

There is not, I believe, upon the face of this earth, 
any spot where a man by industry and economy, and 
the advantage of a small capital, can acquire in so 
short a time a moderate independence, and thereby be 
enabled to return to his native land with a constitution 
very little impaired. 

For many years after we obtained possession of 
these colonies, the mortality amongst our troops was 
truly appalling, and it was not till Lieut.-General Sir 
Benjamin D'Urban brought his great and philosophic 
mind to bear upon the inquiry, that the true cause of 



218 BRITISH GUIANA. 

that mortality was either properly ascertained, or in 
any way remedied. The reports and remonstrances 
of the health-officers were either not read or not acted 
upon. 

The first and great cause of disease amongst the 
troops in British Guiana {and it is still a principal 
cause in many of the other West India colonies, as 
well as in this,) is the confined and very defective 
state of their barrack accommodation. The Dutch 
casernes or barracks that existed when we took pos- 
session of the place, were immediately occupied by our 
troops. These buildings seemed as if they had been 
purposely constructed to produce disease and death ; 
and really our own engineers and commanders in 
former days would appear (in many of our older 
colonies) to have followed, in this respect, the fashion 
of the Dutch authorities. 

Our ignorance, too, of the laws which regulate 
the formation and movements of marsh exhalations, 
led us to adopt in theory what has been found most 
destructive in practice, in all that regarded the most 
healthy locality for our military stations. Indeed, 
the subject of West India diseases was never fairly 
understood, nor properly investigated, until the late 
Dr. Robert Jackson, and Dr. William Fergusson, 
now of Windsor, were placed at the head of the 
medical staff in these colonies. The enlarged and 



BRITISH GUIAKA. 249 

philosophical view which those distinguished phy- 
sicians have taken of this most important of all 
investigations, — the facts they have brought forward, 
— and the minuteness with which they appear to have 
inquired into the nature of the soil and climate of 
every separate station, and all the other contingencies 
which could affect the health of the troops, — show that 
they were not only endowed with the spirit of true 
philosophy, but that they were guided by the zeal 
and devotion of pure wisdom and philanthropy. Dr. 
Jackson, however, has well observed, that " although 
the army medical officer may take whatever liberty he 
pleases with the soldiers health, and even life, when 
he has once been admitted within the walls of the 
hospital, it is worse than high treason to offer any 
opinion, or give any advice, that may tend to prevent 
sickness or obviate mortality, while he is as yet an 
inmate of the barrack-room." 

Dr. Fergusson's able suggestions have been for 
the most part disregarded; and, as I found in my 
own case, to dare to offer a humble opinion on a 
subject the most important of all others, — the preser- 
vation of human life, — was in these irritable regions 
considered as almost tantamount to mutiny. 

The two great causes of the sickness and mortality 
among the troops in British Guiana therefore arise, 
first, as already stated, from a want of proper barrack 

m 5 



250 BEITISH GUIANA, 

accommodation; and, secondly, from improper food, — 
food improper under any circumstances for a tropical 
climate, but more especially so for the damp moist 
atmosphere of Demerara. 

I have already offered some remarks on this subject, 
as it affects the moral conduct and efficiency of our 
brave troops. I am now to consider it as connected 
with health, and the preservation of human life in this 
province, where it may be said to be the most essential 
of all considerations. Sir Benjamin D'Urban, — whose 
long experience in camp and garrison is well known, 
and whose talents, sound judgment, and true huma- 
nity, have scarcely ever been equalled, — was very soon 
convinced that these were, indeed, the true causes of 
the melancholy scenes he witnessed after he assumed 
the government of British Guiana ; and that, although 
their effects were much aggravated by the intem- 
perance and irregularities of the troops themselves, it 
was nevertheless the bounden duty of every command- 
ing officer to endeavour to have them removed. After 
much exertion, he did succeed in getting new barracks 
to a limited extent, built upon sound rational prin- 
ciples ; and by his own authority, he managed for a 
time to have the troops furnished with a greater 
proportion of fresh nourishing meat than the army 
regulations permitted. But the contractors were more 
powerful at the British Treasury than all the reasoning 



BRITISH GUIANA. 251 

and good sense of the General ; and a fiat went forth, 
that the soldiers here, as elsewhere in the West Indies, 
should only have fresh beef two days in the week ; 
and that for the other five days they must swallow the 
salted beef and pork sent out from Ireland, without 
reference to their diseases or the number of deaths ! 
That Sir Benjamin D'Urban would not have sub- 
mitted quietly to this decision of the Treasury, had 
he remained in the colony, is evident from the follow- 
ing letter, which he addressed at the time to the 
Adjutant-General at Barbados for the information of 
the Commander in Chief. 

Demerara, 5th October, 183L 

Sir, 

I have had the honour to receive your letters of the 
16th and 18th of September, with their enclosures, respecting 
the extra issue of fresh-meat rations, in lieu of salt, to the 
white troops in this district. 

Before I proceed to make a few observations which I feel 
it my duty to offer on the subject, it is just that I should cor- 
rect an error into which the Secretary of the Treasury appears 
to have fallen in his letter of the 12th August, inasmuch as 
no extra issue of fresh meat has ever been made to the officers- 
it has been all along restricted to the non-commissioned 
officers and private soldiers. 

During seven years that I have commanded the troops in 
this district, their varying health has frequently, in the 
opinion of the medical officers, required the diminution of a 
salt-meat diet, and a corresponding substitution of a fresh 
one ; and at their recommendation I have accordingly directed 
this arrangement to the extent which they have, for the time 
being, judged necessary — (sometimes to five and six days in 



252 BRITISH GUIANA. 

the week, and once or twice to a fresh-meat diet altogether), 
provisionally, however, and awaiting the confirmation of the 
Commander of the Forces, which has always followed; and 
as often as the medical officers have been of opinion that this 
extra issue could be safely diminished, I have gradually 
reduced it again to the ordinary ration of two days in each 
week. 

The first period to which you advert is that of June, 1828. 

The grounds of that issue will be found in the letter to me 
(enclosed) from the Physician to the Forces (having reference 
to former issues, with their beneficial effects) ; and, in conse- 
quence of my communication thereon, the measure was sanc- 
tioned at the Head-Quarters of the command, and the extra 
issue continued accordingly, 

In the following December (1828) the principal Medical 
Officer having been of opinion that these issues might be 
gradually reduced to the ordinary ration of two days in each 
week, they were so reduced accordingly; but in the middle 
of January following (1829), his special report again'required 
a diminution of salt meat, and an addition of fresh; and it 
was ordered in consequence, and reported to Head-Quarters, 
from whence the measure was sanctioned. 

This is the second period adverted to in your letter, and . 
these extra issues (of two days a week,) continued through 
that year, — the principal Medical Officer not having judged 
it prudent, adverting to the state of the troops, to advise its 
discontinuance. 

In the month of January, 1830, I had called the attention 
of the Deputy-Inspector of Hospitals (and principal Medical 
Officer of the district) to the practicability of returning to the 
ordinary ration. 

His answer showed that such a measure would be prejudi- 
cial to the troops, and I accordingly reported upon the subject 
to you, for the consideration of his Excellency the Lieutenant 
General commanding the Forces, on the 10th January, 1830. 
In consequence of which, his Excellency was pleased, in the 



BRITISH GUIANA. 253 

communication which I had the honour to receive from you 
of the 18th January, 1830, to authorize my continuing " the 
extra issue of four days, instead of two, in each week, for such 
a period as the Medical Officer might consider essential to 
the health of the troops." It has since continued in the true 
spirit of that condition, for there has been no subsequent 
period wherein the Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals 
has thought himself warranted to advise a change. 

The very extraordinary state of the weather (upon which I 
have already had occasion to report to his Excellency), from 
the end of November last, having continued through the 
whole of those months usually considered the healthy season, 
(and during which, in ordinary years, a return to the com- 
mon ration might have been attempted), so that July, which 
is held to be the beginning of the unhealthy season, arrived, 
and rendered such a measure injudicious. 

Herewith I transmit a report from the Deputy Inspector- 
General of Hospitals, (to whom I had communicated the 
purport of your letters,) in consequence of which I have 
taken upon me to suspend for the moment, and until the 
subject can have been brought under the consideration of the 
Lieutenant-General commanding the Forces, the proposed 
alteration of the soldiers' diet ; and I earnestly hope that his 
Excellency may feel himself warranted, in the circumstances, 
to acquiesce in Dr. Bone's recommendation, and sanction a 
continuance of the present diet until December, — after which, 
I am quite aware, that the Treasury orders admit of no alter- 
native. I feel secure in stating my opinion (confirmed, as it 
is, by that of the successive Medical Officers who have had 
charge of this district for seven years past), that a prepon- 
derance of the proportion of salt meat in the soldiers' diet (as 
directed by the present regulations,) over that of the fresh, is 
prejudicial to the health of the troops in this peculiar climate, 
inasmuch as it tends more, in the first instance, to predispose 
the habit to the diseases of the country, and, in the next, to 
render their character more obstinate and unmanageable. 



254 BRITISH GUIANA. 

Nor can there be any doubt that the eating of the ordinary 
salted ration creates an unnatural degree of thirst. Those 
who know the British soldier will be aware that he seldom 
quenches this with water alone, and in this view I regard the 
salt ration as an incentive to his greatest bane, — drinking. 

It may not be altogether irrelevant to the consideration of 
increased expense, as it may have been more or less incurred 
in this case, that although the extra issue of two rations in 
each week of fresh provisions has been scarcely discontinued 
since the beginning of 1829, yet a larger issue (such as five or 
six days), as was made in preceding years, has never been re- 
sorted to ; for, availing myself of many conferences with the 
medical officers, it has been my object to effect the desired 
purpose with the least possible increase of fresh-meat expen- 
diture, and that has appeared to be just so much as might 
preponderate, giving four days of fresh for every three days 
of salted food. 

I have thought it incumbent upon me to offer these obser- 
vations, (to which I entreat the indulgent attention of his 
Excellency the Major-General, ) in justice to the successive 
medical officers of this district, as well as to myself; and 
because of the important influence upon the health of the 
soldiers in this climate, which I believe to be involved in the 
general question to which they relate. 

(Signed) B. D'Urban, Major-General. 

Fortunately, I say most fortunately, for the British 
soldiers destined to garrison British Guiana, Sir Ben- 
jamin's successor was a man of the same mind, and 
endowed with the same feelings. He soon became 
satisfied of the soundness of his predecessor's views, 
and determined to act upon them, — perhaps to improve 
upon them ; and although it is altogether out of the 
power of man to prevent disease, or its increase under 



BRITISH GUIANA. 255 

unusual circumstances, it is a pleasant reflection to all 
concerned, that, taking into consideration the relative 
numbers exposed, the deaths in British Guiana are 
now fewer than in any other colony. Were the British 
troops in Guiana allowed fresh meat five days in seven, 
they would be as healthy as any troops in the West 
Indies, and have fewer casualties than they still have. 
When the heat and suffocation of the old bar- 
rack-rooms came in aid of the excess of the salt pro- 
vision which they were compelled to eat, the epidemics 
of the colony committed frightful ravages. We now 
read with horror of the mortality that took place 
during the first years of our occupation of the colony ; 
but even down to a very late period, whenever the 
troops after their arrival were allowed for any length 
of time to continue upon the regulated ration diet, 
their loss was frightful. In proof of this assertion, I 
shall give, in a few words, the history of two or three 
gallant corps, whose fate it has been to serve in this 
colony. These histories are taken from official records, 
md are only selected as being the latest in the medical 
agisters. 

1st. "The 19th Regiment arrived in this colony in the 
month of December, 1826, direct from Ireland, an unusually 
young and fine-looking body of men, in a high state of military 
discipline, under an officer in the vigour of life, devoted to 
his professional pursuits and to the welfare of his corps." I 
quote these words from Dr. Arthur's special report. They of 



256 BRITISH GUIANA. 

course lived on salt provisions during the voyage out", and, on 
their arrival in British Guiana, came upon the usual five 
days' salt and two fresh-meat weekly ration. There was no 
unusually bad weather, nor had even the usual sickly season 
commenced ; when, all at once, in the beginning of May, 
there was a sudden explosion of disease, — a fever, most severe 
in its type, and terrible in its ravages, — for in five months 
one hundred and eleven men, eleven women, and twenty-two 
children, were carried to the^grave ; and, as a proof that it was 
the bad diet, and that alone, which was the cause of this 
great sickness and mortality, I have to observe, that though 
the corporals, who lived on their rations as the men did, suf- 
fered equally with them, not one of the Serjeants died, though 
many had the fever; and why ? because they had a well-regu- 
lated private mess of their own, and had bought fresh meat 
daily from the time of their arrival in the colony. Lieutenant- 
Colonel Mylne, who caught the bilious remittent fever on the 
west coast, after it had ceased to prevail in the regiment, 
was lost, because his over-exertion of body and great anxiety 
of mind had induced that very condition in him which the 
salt meat had produced in his men. When the sickness be- 
came alarming, extra fresh meat was applied for and granted. 
At first they had three days in the week, then four days, 
then five, and at last they had fresh meat every day ; yet 
the sickness continued, and the mortality was not lessened, 
until they had scarcely a man fit for duty. 

The next instance is that of the 25th Regiment, which 
arrived in this colony from Barbados in January, 1828 ; and 
this instance affords a strong proof of the great difference 
between the climate of Barbados and that of this colony, and 
shows the impossibility of a physician being able to say what 
is proper in one colony from what he has observed in another. 
At Barbados it had not been found necessary to recommend 
any deviation from the regulated ration. They had lost very 
few men, and they came to Demerara with the advantage of 
a two years' seasoning in a tropical climate; and, like the 



BRITISH GUIANA. 25J 

19th, they were allowed to continue on the usual allowance of 
five days' salt and two days' fresh meat weekly. Nothing ex- 
traordinary occurred, or, at least, is at all remarked, till the 
beginning of June, when, just as happened with the 19th in 
the previous year, acute disease broke out with a violence and 
a virulence that in three months sent sixty-five men, six 
women, and five children, to their last home. Here, again, 
when the sickness became alarming, fresh meat was applied 
for and obtained, for five days in the week, which continued 
from 6th June to 9th December, when they were reduced 
to four days, which was continued to them throughout the 
whole of 1829, and during that year they lost only twenty- 
nine men. The exertions of Sir Benjamin D'Urban procured 
a continuance of two days' extra meat during the whole of 
1830 and 1831, when it was stopped by a positive order from 
Lords of the Treasury ; and luckily, the two succeeding years 
were unusually dry and healthy, and the troops suffered less 
than they would otherwise have done from such a deprivation 
of their necessary nourishment. On my arrival at Demerara, 
the 86th Regiment were just upon the verge of that critical 
period which had proved so very disastrous to the 19th and 
25 th, and still later to the 65th at Berbice ; and when I took 
the charge in March, 1834, I have no hesitation in saying 
that I found some men of the 25th afflicted with symptoms 
indicating scurvy, and I felt most miserable until I had pro- 
cured for them the two days' extra fresh meat. Fortunately 
it was granted sufficiently early, and continued long enough, 
to eradicate that scorbutic tendency, and to afford them pro- 
tection against the dangers of an unusually wet and trying 
sickly season ; for, although we had nearly the usual number 
upon the sick list, and a great increase of the sick in July, 
August, and September, our casualties were indeed far under 
the usual amount of even the least of former years. The 86th 
Regiment lost only ten men in the hospital at Eve Leary, 
where their average strength was two hundred and fifty ; but 
they lost eighteen at Berbice, where they had only one hun- 



258 BRITISH GUIANA. 

dred and sixty. This gallant corps arrived at Trinidad about 
the 1st of September, 1827. At Trinidad and Tobago no 
precaution was taken to give the men extra fresh meat ; and, 
in consequence, they became so sickly, and the casualties so 
numerous, that before the end of 1828 it was found necessary 
to remove them to Barbados. 

In 1830, they were moved to Antigua and St. Kitt's, where 
they remained till February, 1833. They arrived in British 
Guiana about the end of that month, and in twelve months 
lost forty-four men, besides several women and some children. 
They had been six years in the West Indies, and yet no sea- 
soning could prevent the severe loss they sustained here. 
By getting them fresh meat, in the beginning of May, 
their loss in 1834 was only thirty men, and the majority of 
these died before that meat could possibly have any effect 
upon their constitutions. In Trinidad, Tobago, and British 
Guiana, they lost eighty-four men in twenty months ; whereas 
their total loss in four years, in the other islands, was only 
ninety, — six more. 

The fresh-meat diet immediately reduced their casualties, 
as stated, but they have increased nearly a third in the last 
year, and I firmly believe their loss would have been greater, 
had the men not got extra fresh meat in September, October, 
and November last. I, therefore, need not add another 
word on the great importance of fresh meat to the troops in 
this individual colony. 

I have said it has been stated, from the very highest 
authority, and that it has hitherto been generally 
credited, that troops suffered as much from sickness in 
being removed from one colony to another within the 
tropics, as they did in removing from Europe to the 
West Indies. This, I think, I have shown to be a 
fallacy ; but even granting it were a fact, it arises, I 



BRITISH GUIANA. 



259 



assert, entirely from our obstinacy in ' compelling men 
to eat the same food, and adhere to the same customs, 
in countries and climates requiring the utmost study 
and discrimination as to each, for they are nearly as 
different in all respects, except temperature, as the 
Himalaya mountains and the Demerara swamps. 

What a soldier may continue to live upon for years 
in Barbados, without much injury to his constitution, 
would, in twelve months in Demerara, as I have 
proved, render him a prey to the most trifling disease 
or accident to which he might become exposed. His 
whole frame would be a mass of corruption, and he 
would be totally unfit for either exercise or exertion. 
In every colony time and dire experience have taught 
the inhabitants what are the products most congenial 
to the soil, and most beneficial to the living animal ; 
we ought, therefore, to be guided by that experience 
in selecting the necessary nutriment for the troops in 
each of these colonies, and not continue, as we have 
hitherto done, to compel, as it were, all soils and all 
climates to succumb to the interests of our army con- 
tractors. Whatever modification nature and circum- 
stances may hitherto have demanded, the rule was 
not to be broken ; and to shew an apparent saving of 
a few pounds or shillings, I affirm, that thousands of 
human beings have been doomed to lose their lives. I 
say, apparent saving, — and I say so advisedly, because 



260 BRITISH GUIANA. 

in the present tranquil and flourishing state of all our 
West India colonies, my already recorded assertion 
that a saving of 50,000/. per annum might be made in 
our military expenditure, by a change from the present 
obsolete and pernicious system of feeding the troops, 
to one founded on plain common sense principles, will 
be found quite correct*. 

In all our colonies within the tropics it is bad policy 
to feed our troops on salt provisions; and although 
they are not so pernicious in some of these colonies as 
in others, yet they uniformly predispose, and are the 

* Since writing the above, I have seen a well-written pam- 
phlet, by Colonel Drinkwater, late senior-comptroller of 
accounts. He states, amongst other benefits conferred upon 
the nation by that Board, there were more than 9000/. per 
annum saved by reducing the issues of fresh meat to the troops 
in the West Indies to two days in the week. I beg leave to 
tell the Colonel, that by this saving of which he boasts, there 
have been sacrificed more than 100 British soldiers annually; 
and that, independent of humanity, and all the other Christian 
feelings that ought to guide us in our conduct towards our 
fellow-creatures, I would ask, what gain has it been to Great 
Britain ? A hundred British soldiers are certainly of more 
value than 9000/. But, now that it can be proved, and, 
indeed, as I have shown, is proved, that humanity and economy 
can go hand in hand, why are we to pursue a system as perni- 
cious as it is expensive ? There is not even a political motive 
for doing so, as, since the Reform Bill passed, the minister of 
the day can never be in want of the votes of two or three 
overgrown contractors in the House of Commons. I would, 
therefore, earnestly implore their Lordships of the Treasury 
to give this matter a little of their attention. 



ERITISH GUIANA. 261 

chief cause of the unusual mentality of the epidemics 
that so frequently occur in all of them. These epi- 
demics, as is evident, arise from causes of which we 
know almost nothing, and, I allow, are quite inde- 
pendent of the habits or conditions, or even the food, 
of the inhabitants ; but that they are, more or less, 
aggravated by such habits and conditions, and more 
especially by unwholesome food, is equally certain. 
The issue of every case of disease will depend upon 
the sound or unsound state of the body that is attacked, 
and that state, as is now fully admitted, is almost 
always modified or produced by the quality or the 
kind of food with which the body has previously been 
nourished and supported. When the constitution is 
sound, and the body is well nourished and vigorous, 
that epidemic will appear as a mild and easily-sub- 
dued disease, which, in a different condition of the 
body, will extinguish the vital principle, with a force 
and a rapidity that baffle all attempts at alleviation 
or cure. 

In British Guiana, salt provisions ought never to be 
issued above once or twice a week ; and the same 
remark applies to Trinidad and Tobago. By far the 
greater portion of these colonies is an alluvial deposit ; 
the soil, therefore, being still saturated with moisture, 
the atmosphere remains damp and heavy, during the 
driest months, and, of course, is doubly so during the 



262 BRITISH GUIANA. 

periodical rains ; and yet, though more may die, I am 
convinced that epidemic disease is not more frequent, 
or more severe, in these colonies than in the other 
islands. 

Most of the medical practitioners in British Guiana 
are able, intelligent, and well-educated men ; but still, 
any man who has a diploma from a European college, 
or university, or, whether he has a diploma or not, pro- 
vided he can obtain a license from the Governor, may 
commence practice as a Doctor without being called 
upon to exhibit any proofs of his knowledge or expe- 
rience. The profession ought to be better regulated, 
and in a community now so rapidly increasing, and 
where men of learning and talent abound, some 
arrangement must be made to prevent the mischief 
which ignorance and impudence are calculated to 
produce in a population not yet sufficiently enlight- 
ened to distinguish the true physician from the false 
pretender. The present Governor of the colony is 
fully disposed to support any measures which the 
faculty themselves may suggest for the better ordering 
of their department, and I do hope and trust that the 
leading men of the profession will take the matter into 
their serious consideration, and agree upon an ordi- 
nance to be passed by the Governor and Court of 
Policy, for regulating the practice of physic and 
surgery. 



BRITISH GUIANA. 263 

There are many medicinal herbs within, what may 
be called, the limits of the colony; but their pro- 
perties are but little known, and have never been fully 
investigated : the native Indians have recourse to a great 
many in their different ailments. The gum of a tree 
called the Haiwas, is their cure for colds : the root of 
the Wonsomia makes an infusion that allays inflamma- 
tion of the eyes: the bark of the Mona-tree, when 
infused, has powerful emetic qualities ; and, as a pur- 
gative, a tea-spoonful of a fungus that grows on the 
trunks of fallen trees, when dried and powdered, is 
found sufficient. The best kinds of this fungus are 
found on the bark of the Curida-tree. The prepara- 
tion is also said to produce very beneficial effects in 
dropsy, and is known to have removed tape- worm, 
when all other remedies had failed. 

The mona-bark contains nearly double the quantity 
of tannin that has ever been found in the best oak- 
bark, and the bark of the " Laurus Bebeerus," or 
green-heart, is found superior, as a febrifuge, to any 
of the cinchonas, and is used by the natives for the cure 
of their intermittent and remittent fevers. Mr. Hugh 
Rodie, a naval surgeon of some standing, and long a 
resident in this colony, has made a preparation from 
this bark, which he calls Bebeerine, and which is 
certainly equal, if not superior, in all its remedial 
effects to the best Quinine. 



264 BRITISH GUIANA. 

All knowledge which the natives possess of the 
virtues of plants has been handed down by tradition. 
They have no written language; yet they can cure 
ulcers, destroy the poison of venomous snakes, and 
allay the symptoms of various diseases with perfect 
success. Their doctors are a distinguished and a 
greatly privileged class : they are called Peijmen, 
pronounced Pe-ai-men, and before the young aspi- 
rant can obtain his degree, he has to undergo a rather 
severe apprenticeship. It is thus described by my 
excellent friend, Dr. M'Turk, who was at pains to 
make himself master of the whole proceeding : — " The 
person who is desirous of learning the art, or whatever 
it may be called, applies, either personally or through 
his father, to the elders of the family of the Peijman 
who is to teach him'. The Peijman hears the appli- 
cant patiently, who relates to him his history, and that 
of his family, and where he resides ; these statements 
proving satisfactory, the peijman takes his pupil the 
first night apart from every house or dwelling, and 
sings and bellows over him the whole night, occasion- 
ally puffing tobacco-smoke in his face. This ceremony 
being over, which commences at six o'clock in the 
evening, and continues till six o'clock in the morning, 
without intermission, he is put into the peij-house (a 
house built and used for no other purpose), closed in 
at top and sides, leaving only a small aperture for a 



BRITISH GUIANA. 265 

door, which, when shut, renders the inside quite dark. 
Here the new initiated remains for a week, seated night 
and day on a block of wood, — no bed, hammock, or 
any article of furniture whatever allowed in the house ; 
in this condition he is attended by the Peijman every 
night, who performs the same ceremony as at the 
beginning : he also visits him daily, on which occasions 
he gives him to drink a quantity of tobacco-water, 
which vomits him until he is quite exhausted. The 
only food that is allowed him is about an ounce of 
cassava-bread, and about the same quantity of dried 
fish, and a little water, daily, which he can seldom use 
from the disturbed state of his stomach. 

" At the end of the week, the Peijman gives him, by 
way of a finale, a calabash-ful of Paiwary, a drink made 
from toasted cassava-bread steeped in water, which 
forms a fermented intoxicating liquor ; this quantity 
(about a gallon) he has to drink at one draught, 
which is s&re to vomit him ; he is then taken out of 
the peij -house, looking more like a spectre than a 
human being. It takes some time before the new 
Peijman can walk about, and until his strength is 
restored, or that he can take his departure for his 
home. 

" The peij-houses are now very rare. About twenty 
years ago there was a large establishment of this sort 
on the Abanacary Creek, in the Essequibo River, 

N 



266 BRITISH GUIANA. 

where at stated periods the Peijmen assembled, to per- 
form their exorcisms and examine the younger Peij- 
men. A father cannot teach a son, nor a son a father, 
— at least it is not the custom." 



26J 



CHAPTER XVI. 
TOBAGO. 

DEPARTURE FROM DEMERARA — ARRIVAL AT TOBAGO — SCAR- 
BOROUGH BAY HISTORY OF THE COLONY UNHEALTHI- 

NESS OF FORT KING GEORGE CAUSES OF ITS BEING SO — 

IMPROVEMENT RECOMMENDED EXTENT AND COMMERCE 

APPEARANCE AND FORMATION OF THE ISLAND — ITS HISTORY. 

On Tuesday, the 24th of February, I left the River 
Demerara, on board the army brigantine, Duke of 
York. My destination was Trinidad, but as the 
captain had business at Tobago, we stood first for 
that island. We sailed from Georgetown at 4 p.m., 
on the 24th, and at 6 p.m., on the 27th, anchored 
in Scarborough Bay. Tobago is a small island of 
volcanic origin ; the most southerly of the Wind- 
ward group, and not quite so far to the east as 
Barbados. This island, it is said, was discovered 
by Columbus in 1496, which I doubt very much ; 
for, as we know that Trinidad was not seen till two 
years afterwards, I cannot suppose that Columbus 
could visit Tobago, and not see the high mountains 
that were not more than eight or ten miles distant. 
I should rather think, that Trinidad and Tobago 
must have been discovered at the same time. The 

N 2 



268 TOBAGO. 

origin assigned to the name is also doubtful. Tobago, 
or Tobacco, may have been the original name of the 
narcotic herb now so much in repute in Europe; but 
why it should be so abundantly used in this little 
spot as to lead the Spanish commander to designate 
the island thereby, has nowhere been stated. When 
first visited, it was occupied by a tribe of natives from 
the main-land. These, whether from the genuine 
nation of the Carabeese or not, were accounted Carribs 
by the discoverers. We are told, that they were at 
war with the Arrowaaks, and that these Arrowaaks 
drove them from the island, and took possession of it 
themselves, while the banished Carribs found shelter 
in St. Vincent's. 

In 1580, Tobago was considered a British posses- 
sion, as the British flag was planted on the island that 
year. It was not, however, till the first adventurers 
had disembarked at Barbados, that the ships which 
carried them out touched at Tobago, and attempted 
also to form a colony there. In this they did not 
succeed ; and the island may be said to have remained 
unoccupied, until a company of Dutch merchants sent 
out about 200 emigrants, who took possession of it in 
1632. The island was then named New Walcheren ; 
but the Dutch were not allowed to remain above two 
years, as the Spaniards, aided by the natives, attacked 
them, and the whole were either killed, or carried 



TOBAGO. 269 

prisoners to Trinidad. The commercial enterprise of 
the Dutch was not to be stopped by this disaster. The 
Lamps ins, also Flushing merchants, fitted out a new 
convoy, after having obtained a grant of the island 
from the States-General, and under their auspices it 
became a very flourishing colony. King James I., 
at the time that he gave Barbados, and the West 
Indian sovereignty, to the Earl of Carlisle, made a 
present of Tobago to his godson, the Duke of 
Courland. This prince also sent out settlers, who 
arrived on the north of the island (at the harbour 
still called Courland Bay,) much about the same time 
that the Hollanders had settled on the south. War 
was the consequence ; the Courlanders were over- 
thrown, and the Dutch remained in quiet possession 
of the whole. Some privateers from Barbados, while 
England was at war with Holland, under Sir Tobias 
Bridges, landed their crews, and carried off much 
plunder; but the most serious check which the colony 
received was from the French admiral D'Estrees, 
who, in 1677s defeated the Dutch admiral Binks, in 
Scarborough Bay, and carried away almost all the 
property of the colonists. D'Estrees afterwards landed 
with a considerable force, and took possession of the 
whole island, making such of the Dutch as had not 
already abandoned it prisoners of war. 

The extinction of the house of Courland, in 1737? 



270 TOBAGO. 

gave occasion for England to demand the cession of the 
island of Tobago, which was still held by France, 
but this demand was not attended to. By the treaty 
of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 17^8, Tobago, Grenada, St. 
Vincent's, and Dominica, were declared to be neutral 
territories; where the subjects of all European powers 
were at liberty to form settlements, or carry on com- 
merce, but none of the contracting parties were per- 
mitted to place garrisons in any of these islands. At 
the peace of 1763, France now ceded Tobago to 
England, as was said, in perpetuity ; and from the 
20th of May, 1765, we may date the commencement 
of the present order of things in this colony. At the 
date just mentioned, a royal commission was appointed 
to dispose of grants of land, and large capitals were 
invested in the purchase and cultivation of these grants. 
In 1781, the Duke de Bouillie captured Tobago, and 
at the peace of 1783 France was allowed to retain 
possession of it ; but in March, 1793, General Cuyler, 
at the head of 2000 British troops, reconquered it, and 
Tobago continues at the present hour a chartered 
British colony. 

Scarborough, the capital of the island, lies in a 
beautiful valley, on the south-west side of the island. 
The hills that bound this valley form, as it were, 
two advancing promontories, within which, and off 
the town, is the roadstead, or anchorage for ships, 



TOBAGO, 271 

called Scarborough Bay. On the summit of the hill 
most advanced on the east side, the wisdom of our an- 
cestors has placed the Castle, or Fort, of King George, 
and constituted it the head-quarters of our military 
force in the island. The number of troops stationed 
here is very small, and it is fortunate that it is so, for 
a spot more destructive of human life does not exist in 
any part of the West Indies. If it be necessary to 
retain this position, and keep it fortified for the pro- 
tection of the shipping in the bay, which I question, 
the only troops necessary to be quartered in it would 
be a few artillerymen, to look after the guns, and 
attend to the signal-post. The barracks for the garri- 
son ought to be on the plain where the town of Scar- 
borough is built. This would make Tobago as healthy 
as any other station for British troops. The diminu- 
tion of casualties would soon repay the cost of the 
new barracks ; so that, even as a measure of economy, 
I would recommend to the serious consideration of the 
proper authorities, whether at home or abroad, such 
a change as a beneficial improvement. 

The barracks of Fort King George are placed on 
the top of a detached hill, which rises, by a very steep 
ascent, above 500 feet from the plain below. Under 
any circumstances, the mounting from the town to the 
barracks is a work of labour, and, under a burning 
sun, not soon accomplished. But when we reflect, that 



27^ TOBAGO. 

soldiers, when out on leave, will always loiter till' the 
last moment, and that, probably heated with ardent 
spirits, they hasten to reach their barracks before the 
drums have beat off, — that exhausted, panting, and 
overcome with heat and fatigue, they throw themselves 
down in the verandahs, or passages, where there is 
always a strong current of moist air, — air always 
loaded more or less with the noxious effluvia from the 
extensive eastern marsh, that approaches to the very 
base of the mountain, and 

Whence humid Auster, on his drooping wings, 

Gross exhalations brings ; 
Where effluvia from the marshy brake, 

Or murky stagnant lake, 
Pregnant with ills arise in misty fogs, — 

when we consider, therefore, the position of Fort 
King George, — first from its elevation leading to over- 
exertion and unnecessary exhaustion, and next from 
its forming the very point or pinnacle on which the 
marsh effluvia collect and concentrate, we cannot in 
any way feel surprised that the garrison is unhealthy. 
The troops that garrison Tobago are now always 
detached from the British regiment quartered in Trini- 
dad. If allowed to remain for any length of time, they 
generally leave a fourth of their number behind, and 
the remainder, after their return to head quarters, 
have frequent and severe relapses of chest-complaints, 



TOBAGO. 273 

dysenteries, and remittent fevers. Tobago is nearly 
as unhealthy as Prince Rupert's in Dominica, (where 
latterly no white troops are allowed to do duty,) and 
exactly from the same causes. A little alteration 
would make both stations perfectly healthy. 

The length of the island, from the basaltic columns 
on the north-east, to the point of the alluvial plain on 
the south-west, is about thirty miles, but its greatest 
breadth is scarcely twelve miles. The basaltic moun- 
tains embrace an area of about forty-four square miles. 
There is nothing remarkable in the animal or vege- 
table productions, except that one or two species of 
birds are more numerous here, and seem to thrive 
better, than in the other islands, or on the main-land. 
One called here the Katraka, which resembles in some 
respects our pheasant, will not propagate in Trinidad ; 
and it is also said, that some varieties from Trinidad 
will not thrive in Tobago; but these assertions I doubt 
are not correct, as they have not been proved by any 
well-ascertained facts. There are only three varieties 
of the humming-bird in the island, but there is one 
splendid specimen of the Certhia, or creeper family. 
The small American deer, so plentiful in Trinidad, 
have not yet reached Tobago ; but its rocky shores are 
always swarming with many varieties of fish, and 
shoals of Turtle. In the Trinidad channel, and in- 
deed, all around the coast, the king-fish, the grouper, 



274 TOBAGO. 

and all the other varieties of intertropical fishes, are 
caught in the greatest abundance. I had no oppor- 
tunity of ascertaining the exact number of European 
colonists, but they are considerably greater than what 
Mr. Montgomery Martin states. The established reli- 
gion is the Church of England ; but the Presbyte- 
rians have become sufficiently numerous to build two 
churches and have ministers of their own. The free 
coloured population, in 1833, was under 1200, and 
the slave population about 12,000. I do not think 
that there is sufficient enterprise, to warrant our sup- 
posing there has been any great increase of popula- 
tion ; though certainly here, as has been proved every- 
where, free labour has been more productive than 
slavery could ever be made. The exports during last 
year have greatly exceeded those of any former period, 
but I have no means of giving the actual quantities. 

The scenery and formation of Tobago, which I had 
an opportunity of seeing, have given rise to these few 
remarks ; but as my stay at Scarborough was limited 
to twenty-four hours, I had no opportunity of getting 
any further information. The form of government 
consists here of a Lieutenant-Governor and Council, 
with a House of Assembly, after the same manner 
as the chartered islands, — viz., Barbados, Jamaica, 
Antigua, and others, — which are all subject to British 
law, and have their miniature representatives of the 
" king, lords, and commons," of the mother-country. 



275 



CHAPTER XVII. 
TOBAGO. 

FORMATION OF THE ISLAND CONSIDERED — GENERAL VIEW OF 
THE VOLCANIC ORIGIN OF THE ISLANDS IN THE CARRIBEAN 
SEA — PROBABLE ORDER OF THEIR APPEARANCE — FACTS IN 
SUPPORT OF THE PROPOSED THEORY. 

The eastern and northern boundaries of Tobago con- 
sist of a series of basaltic rocks formed into mountains 
of considerable elevation. The heated matter in a fluid 
state must, therefore, have been stopped here, in its 
progress under the bed of the ocean, and has found its 
way to the surface, elevating at the same time, and 
modifying by its action, the earthy deposits through 
which it had to pass, and causing them to form acute 
or obtuse angles, according to their nearness or distance 
from the moving force. The mountain masses, however, 
of this now cooled and crystallized substance, show 
to what extent, even here, it burst forth, and has 
overflowed those previously superincumbent strata, 
while in a heated and liquid form. 

As these elevations cooled down and became solid 
masses, they would naturally interrupt the current of 
the ocean, and, by causing eddies or stagnant pools, 



276 TOBAGO. 

allow a new deposition of earthy particles to take 
place, which, in progress of time, have filled up the 
intervening spaces that now form the plains and valleys 
that so beautifully diversify the surface of this island. 
The tongue of low land that stretches to the south- 
west, and may in after-ages reach the shores of Trini- 
dad, is a continuation of the alluvial deposits from the 
detritus of the earthy masses, as well as from the inter- 
rupted current of the sea. 

The whole of the islands of the Carribean Sea are 
of volcanic origin, and have been formed either by the 
overflowing of the stream of melted primitive mate- 
rials in the form of granite, lava, or, as here, of basalt, 
or by the forces brought into existence by that stream, 
in its passage under the bottom of the sea, pushing up 
the earthy accumulations to the surface, after they had 
received a new impress or form from the action of the 
heat, affecting more or less the innumerable and 
hitherto uncombined metals, minerals, and earths, of 
which they were composed. Taking this as the cer- 
tain cause of the appearance of all of these islands 
above the surface of the great deep, I shall now ven- 
ture to offer some conjectures as to the order in which 
they did appear. 

When that overwhelming and mighty power 
which, at the command of Omnipotence, had raised 
the Andes to their present elevation, throughout an 



TOBAGO, 277 

extent of more than four thousand miles, and laid 
the foundations of the great continent of South 
America, could no longer act in an upward direction, 
it would naturally seek a horizontal course through 
the media that offered the least resistance. Accord- 
ingly, as I suppose, it must have taken a course at 
first nearly north-east; but as it proceeded, it gradually 
inclined more to the north and west; and when it 
reached the eighteenth degree of north latitude, it was 
suddenly changed to a course due west, or west and 
by north. This river of liquid fire must, I think, have 
moved upon the surface of the primitive crust of the 
earth, and under the accumulated strata at the bottom 
of the ocean ; and it evidently was not able to pene- 
trate through these strata until it reached the middle 
of the Mexican gulf, where it must have vomited forth 
what now constitutes the western promontory of Cuba. 
Successive layers were, no doubt, rapidly added, and 
hence the present extensive island of that name. 

When this enormous mass of matter had cooled 
down to a certain point, the resistance we may also 
suppose became greater than the force of the current 
could overcome, and, consequently, that it would seek 
another and an easier exit. This was found where 
St. Domingo and Jamaica now have existence. These 
in their turn became solid masses too ponderable to be 
further elevated by the expansive power of the heat. 



278 TOBAGO. 

The main stream then threw off many lateral branches, 
which gave origin to the Bahamas, (not by overflow- 
ing, but by forcing up the superincumbent strata to a 
certain height,) before the resistance was sufficiently 
great to force it to the surface at Porto Rico. 

The next great out-break must have been at Gua- 
daloupe, where the overflowing matter has formed two 
separate masses, and from which it sent those minor 
rivers that raised the foundations of the Virgin and 
Leeward Carribee Islands, situated in the angle of its 
main current. As, however, the sources of this current 
began to fail, and the great fountain became exhausted, 
the eruptions became less and less in extent. St. Vin- 
cent's and Grenada were evidently the last portions of 
the main stream ; as I consider that Trinidad and To- 
bago were called into existence at a much later period 
than any of the other islands, and not till the accumu- 
lation of new forces had enabled the volcanic fountain 
to send out a fresh supply of matter. 

It was one of those supplies, thrown off at an acute 
angle from the now consolidated remains of the former 
eruption, that took, as we may suppose, a course more 
easterly, and when it had reached the latitude of To- ' 
bago was stopped by some opposing barrier, and forced 
to the surface. Here an overflow, as has already been 
stated, took place, to a considerable extent, which, 
cooling down, formed the basaltic mountains of the 



TOBAGO. 279 

island; these again offering a greater resistance than 
the heated liquid could overcome, we may reasonably 
conclude its expansive force would push up to the sur- 
face those strata that lay immediately over its course, 
and that it was this expansive power that brought into 
open day the chain of hills that form the Parian coast 
and the northern boundary of Trinidad. 

That Trinidad was one of the last, if not the very 
last, formation in this sea, I shall endeavour to prove 
more fully hereafter; but in the mean time I am 
anxious to keep the attention of geologists directed to 
the original formations. I have stated my own opinion 
as a mere conjecture, a probable rather than a true 
theory of the actual order of the formation of those of 
the Carribean Islands, and of the principal chain as 
well as the many minor branches which were forced out 
latterly, when the large masses of Cuba, St. Domingo, 
and Jamaica became solid, and acquired a sufficient 
power of resistance. These diverging channels brought 
into existence submarine mountains, which were seized 
upon by the Polypes, whose labours gave origin to the 
IiUcayas, or Bahama Islands, as the satellites of St- 
Domingo and Jamaica. Antigua, Barbuda, and An- 
guilla, and the greater part of the Virgin Islands, 
are formations dependent upon the offsets from Porto 
Rico and Guadaloupe. The primitive foundation of 
Barbados was, perhaps, raised by an original jet from 
St. Vincent's, and its subsequent elevations may have 



280 TOBAGO. 

been caused by such new forces as gave Trinidad and 
Tobago their present bearing. In Montserrat, Nevis, 
and St. Kitt's, St. Eustatius, Saba, and Sta. Cruz, we 
trace the regular course of the liquid stream and its 
overflowings when stopped at Porto Rico. 

Time, and the action of the elements, and the labours 
of the Zoophytes, have effected very important modifi- 
cations in all the islands. In all those where the over- 
flowing of the primitive or liquid matter was the cause 
of their formation, we now find this matter in its solid 
crystallized state upon the surface ; surrounded by the 
various diluvial deposits, — more or less changed, first, 
by the action of the heat, and secondly, by exposure to 
the influences of the atmosphere and moisture, and the 
various chemical agents generated by the disintegra- 
tion of their own particles ; and, lastly, by the Polypes, 
who have wrought, and are still working, wonderful 
changes under the surface of the ocean. 

Subsequent eruptions, too, have covered the original 
surface of some of the islands with recent lava and 
crystallized sulphur. The field is, therefore, as ex- 
tensive as it is interesting ; and it is worthy of being 
especially noticed, that wherever the volcanic stream 
has forced its way to the surface, and by its overflow- 
ing caused the mountain-elevations which now exist, 
these elevations, if to any extent, form a range of hills, 
dividing the mass that forms the island into right and 
left, according to what I have supposed to be the cur- 



TOBAGO. 281 

rent of the stream, but throwing always the largest 
portion to the left-hand side when the course was west- 
ward of north, and to the right hand when it was to 
the east of north ; whereas in those elevations where 
no overflowing has taken place, the manufactured rocky 
boundary is always on the north coast of the land, 
trending to the east and south. 

The primitive mountains of the earth, it may fur- 
ther be noted, are always on the western side, whether 
of island or continent, while the transition or subsequent 
strata prevail in the eastern division of the elevated 
mass. Is it not even so in Great Britain? When 
further we connect, as we must do, the causes of the 
hurricane with the formation of the volcanic masses in 
these latitudes, their study becomes one of paramount 
importance. 

If we admit that there is any probability in the 
account I have thus given of what I conceive to have 
been the original cause of the formation of the islands 
in the Carribean Sea, and grant that they made their 
appearance in the order I have pointed out, we must 
equally allow that they are all bound or connected 
together by the now cooled and consolidated trunk 
and branches of what was once an incandescent and 
liquid stream of granite, basalt, or lava, or of all com- 
bined, and which are now spread under the ocean's bed, 
like the trunk and branches of a large tree. We must 
equally suppose that this mass of volcanic matter, as 



282 



TOBAGO. 



it cooled down to the earth's temperature, would not 
occupy the same space which it did while in its heated 
and liquid state ; and that, therefore, throughout the 
whole extent of its course and ramifications, there would 
be for a time, and in many places still may be, a vault 
or empty space formed over the crystallized vein of 
granite or basalt. That the sides of this vault would 
be formed of the submarine deposits converted into 
solid rock by the action of the heat is equally certain ; 
but that by increased pressure, or the action of chemi- 
cal agents, or the power of the electric fluid, the roof of 
that vault may have, and indeed, has been destroyed 
or broken in many places, is also an event we may 
fairly assert which has frequently occurred. May we 
not, therefore, suppose that the subsequent earthquakes 
which have been experienced have arisen from such 
fallings in, or by the waters of the sea finding their 
Way into the cavity, and, in contact with the still heated 
or easily affected volcanic mass, becoming converted 
into vapour? — that by the expansive power of that 
vapour or steam, or by fresh chemical action, the super- 
incumbent earth was thrown into violent commotion, 
and, by a further destruction of the vaulted arch and 
its escape, it gave rise to such phenomena as occurred 
at Jamaica in 1692, and in the Caraccas and St. Vin- 
cent's in 1812 ? 

The ramifications of this volcanic matter, as indicated 
by the islands it has formed, (if we allow the farthest 



TOBAGO. 2#3 

removed of the series to form the uttermost verge of 
the stream, or the greatest distance to which it had 
penetrated,) are all confined within those bounds or 
limits which the destructive hurricane has never yet 
passed ; consequently we must suppose that these hur- 
ricanes, as has been already hinted, are intimately con- 
nected with, or dependent upon, those subterraneous 
volcanic veins, which must be so numerous in this track. 
If the theory which I have rather hinted at than ex- 
plained in the third chapter of this volume is admitted 
in any way to be a true account of the causes of the 
phenomena which take place during such awful con- 
vulsions of the elements, I would say that the vacuum 
in the lower strata of the atmosphere, or that funnel 
through which the upper and compressed portions 
sink down and become so suddenly expanded, is occa- 
sioned by the rapid absorption of the electric fluid, in 
consequence of some new action in the earth's centre, 
and to which it is so immediately conducted by these 
connecting veins, so expanded upon, as well as under, 
the surface of this sea. 

The principal trunk or artery upon which the cir- 
culation of the subtile fluid may depend, reaches from 
the most westerly point of the island of Cuba, to the 
eastward of Barbados, and its influence, as may be seen 
by consulting the chart attached to this chapter, ex- 
tends from the eleventh to the twenty-second degree 
of north latitude, — from the Havannah on the north- 



284 TOBAGO. 

west, to Grenada in the south-east, forming a range 
sixteen hundred miles in length, and upwards of six 
hundred in breadth. 

According to all that has as yet been recorded of 
West India hurricanes, this is exactly the bounds to 
which they have hitherto been confined; and whether 
they occur on the outskirts of the boundary, as at Bar- 
bados or Antigua, they uniformly show a connexion 
with the supposed course of the volcanic stream in its 
gradual retreat, from the first eruption in Cuba to its 
expiring effort in the formation of the island of Gre- 
nada and the Grenadines. 

The last hurricane at Barbados, as I have stated, 
affected St. Vincenfs; the last at Antigua extended 
to St. Kitfs and other islands. The Bahamas, though 
not within what may strictly be called the hurricane- 
range, are nevertheless (as we should suspect from 
their connexion with that range,) subject to severe 
storms, and sudden atmospheric changes; but these 
are in no way to be put in comparison with the over- 
whelming power and other phenomena of the true 
Tornado. 

That earthquake which destroyed Port Royal in 
1692, was evidently occasioned by the bursting-forth 
of confined vapour through the dome or arch left by 
the cooled and consolidated matter of some volcanic 
stream, and oyer which it unfortunately happened that 
the town of Port Royal had been built. In the ac- 



TOBAGO. 285 

count of that catastrophe, as recorded by Edwards, and 
in the Philosophical Transactions*, we are told " that 
the town was built on a bank of sand adhering to a 
rock in the sea" that the sand moved in the streets 
in heaps like the waves of the sea, and that the earth 
opened and closed in several places with a very great 
motion, swallowing up whole rows of houses, with their 
inhabitants;" — affording, as I consider it, a proof of 
the existence of the cavities of which I hare spoken, as 
arising from the cooling of the great volcanic stream 
throughout all the several branches and deviations 
from its main channel. 

With regard to the period at which the hurricanes 
occur, it is only necessary to observe that the submarine 
volcanic veins must be powerful conductors of heat 
as well as electricity, and as these hurricanes are con- 
fined to the months when the sun, in passing to and 
from the tropic of Cancer, is perpendicular to some 
portion of the tract, the great accumulation of caloric 
must affect more or less the atmospheric changes upon 
which the said hurricanes do certainly depend. 

I shall have occasion to return to this subject in 
treating of the formations in Trinidad, and shall there- 
fore conclude my account of Tobago. 

* Edwards' Hist., vol. i.,p. 231— Phil. Trans., vol. ii., p. 411. 



286 



CHAPTER XVITI. 
TRINIDAD. 

PASSAGE TO TRINIDAD — SCENERY OF THE BOCAS — PORT OF 

SPAIN DISCOVERY AND HISTORY OF THE ISLAND SIR 

WALTER RALEIGH VISITS THE ISLAND, AND PLUNDERS THE 

SPANISH COLONY PRESENT POPULATION OF THE ISLAND 

ITS VALUE AS A COLONY FRENCH LANGUAGE GENERALLY 

SPOKEN COURTS OF JUSTICE STILL REGULATED BY THE 

LAWS OF SPAIN. 

On Saturday, the 28th of February, 1835, about five 
o'clock in the evening, we left Scarborough Bay, and, 
as hidden rocks are numerous along the shore for a 
considerable distance, caution was necessary in steering 
to the westward. The gentle trade-wind drove us 
steadily along, and, as the current was also in our 
favour, we glided softly through the waters. As long 
as daylight served, the sailors amused themselves with 
catching king-fish; this they did with long lines cast 
out from the stern of the ship, and hooks baited with 
thin slices of fat pork. They appeared to be very 
plentiful, for frequently every hook was occupied, and 
I am sure there were more than a dozen lines in re- 
quisition. The run from one island to the other did 
not take more than an hour and a half, but the whole 



TRINIDAD. 287 

night was consumed in sailing along the northern shore 
of Trinidad. There was much thunder and lightning, 
and heavy showers of rain during the night; but when 
the sun rose on Sunday, the first of March, the scene 
which burst upon our wondering sight was one of the 
most sublime and beautiful in nature. We were close 
under the land, at the western extremity of the main 
island ; in the foreground were bleak and barren 
rocks, undermined by hollow caverns, and clothed at 
their summits with all that luxuriance of flower and 
forest-tree which gives so much beauty and brilliancy 
to West Indian scenery. 

These masses, I found, were separate islets, disse- 
vered from each other, and the main island, and run- 
ning westward, so as almost to join the Cumana, or 
rather Parian, coast, which here brings to a point that 
portion of its circle which half encompasses the 
extended gulf. Between each of these islets there is a 
passage from the Atlantic into the Gulf of Paria ; but 
as the current runs strong from the gulf, and the wind 
under the lee of the mountains often fails, the narrow 
passes, or mouths (" Bocas" as they are called,) are 
always dangerous. We stood away for the widest 
channel, which runs between the last island and the 
continental promontory. 

The passage by which Columbus entered the Gulf 
of Paria, was that channel which separates the southern 



288 TRINIDAD. 

shores of the island from the coast of Guiana, and 
across which the streams of the Oronoko force their 
way into the gulf. This he called the Serpent's Mouth 
— w Boca del Serpiente" That by which he sailed 
out of the gulf, he called the " Boca del Drago? or 
Dragon's Mouth; and it was this boca that, at six 
o'clock on this beautiful Sabbath morn, we were about 
to enter. The whole landscape, lighted up as it now 
was by the unclouded splendour of the great luminary of 
day, was such as pen or pencil could never yet portray. 
" The Boca de los Monos," or Monkeys'Passage, was 
the first entrance that we passed : it was still in the 
shade. We then crossed the opening of the " Boca de 
los Huevos," or Egg Passage ; and, lastly, the Ct Boca 
de los Navios," and kept close to the island of Chaca- 
chacarreo, steering south-west. There is a dangerous 
rock off this island, about forty yards in circumference, 
and not more than nine feet under water ; but to that 
rock we gave as wide a berth as was considered 
necessary. The breeze still served to carry us slowly 
along, and when we were within 100 yards of the last 
point of Chacachacarreo, and, as I thought, about to 
enter the gulf, I left the deck. I was not absent 
above a quarter of an hour, yet when I returned, I 
found that the wind had failed, and instead of seeing, 
as I had expected, the whole expanse of the Gulf of 
Paria before me, the current had alreadv carried the 



TRINIDAD. 289 

ship back to nearly the same spot which we had passed 
three hours before. 

The dense cloud of vapour which hung over, or rather 
seemed to rest upon, the tops of the mountains, began 
now to be agitated, and in a very short time a hurricane 
swept down their sides, and, reaching the surface of the 
sea, carried us forward on our course at a rapid pace. 
We entered the gulf with hardly a sail set, and had to 
stand away to the westward until the gale abated. 
These gusts of wind are fortunately not of long conti- 
nuance, and they are generally confined to the northern 
coast of the island, where the lofty peaks of the moun- 
tains arrest and decompose the usual currents of the 
atmosphere. After the rain and the wind had ceased, 
the Gulf of Paria lay all around us, smooth as the surface 
of a well-polished mirror, and shining with a most daz- 
zling brightness. The breeze was then scarcely percep- 
tible, and it required ten or twelve hours to retrace the 
distance which we had gone in one hour during the storm. 

When day dawned on the morning of the second of 
March, I found that we were nearly abreast of Fort 
of Spain. The atmosphere on the mountains was 
clear and transparent, but the plain which they sur- 
rounded was still enveloped in a dense thick covering 
of mist, so calm, and so unruffled, that it almost 
seemed a continuation of the tranquil wave. The 
ships around us stood erect, and, as the sun rapidly 

o 



290 TRINIDAD. 

rose above the horizon, their masts and yards were 
beautifully reflected from the surface of the deep. 

There seemed so much of repose and soft sublimity 
in the whole scene, that the mind was carried insensibly 
to regard with awe and reverence the Almighty 
Author of Creation, whose power was no less mani- 
fested in the contemplated beauty and magnificence of 
nature, now in repose, than in the howling tempest and 
the thunder's roar, which we had so lately experienced. 

As the sun rose in the firmament, the mist was gra- 
dually lifted from the surface of the plain : in some 
places it seemed to be folded up as a garment, but 
generally it moved towards the base of the mountains 
in its expanded form, and gradually mounting up- 
wards, reached their very summits before it disap- 
peared. The city and the plain appeared as sparkling 
with diamonds by the light reflected from the myriads 
of dew-drops that hung from every tower and tree. 
Not a breath of air as yet stirred the foliage, nor 
could we discover any one living thing. The beauty 
and brilliancy of the crimson-orange flowers of the 
" Bois Immortel," which were everywhere fully ex- 
panded, gave a singular appearance to the landscape, as 
they appeared like fiery meteors shining in an atmo- 
sphere of variegated green*. 

* The " Bois Immortel," in Trinidad, sheds its green leaves 
in February, when the tree immediately becomes covered with 
bright crimson-orange flowers, as abundant as its former leaves. 



TRINIDAD. 291 

Soon after nine o'clock a gentle breeze came off 
from the land, but it did not continue to blow steadily 
till after ten o'clock ; we then made towards the shore 
and cast anchor ; and about two p.m. I landed at Port 
of Spain. 

Trinidad was discovered by Columbus during his 
third voyage, on the 31st of July, 1498; and, either 
from three mountains which were first seen from the 
deck of his ship, or the day on which he first saw 
it, he gave it the name of the Holy Trinity. It was 
then, as is reported, thickly inhabited by a people who 
had emigrated from the opposite continent (Carribs), 
and who were allowed to remain in undisturbed pos- 
session for nearly a century after their discovery. 
In 1588, the Spaniards first established a colony in 
this island, and fixed its head-quarters about seven 
miles inland, near the base of the highest mountain 
in the island, and at a considerable elevation above the 
level of the sea. This town was placed under the pro- 
tection, and named after the husband, of the Virgin 
Mary, and is still known as St. Joseph's. In 1595, 
Sir Walter Raleigh visited the colony, and plundered 
it of all its wealth. He says, the Spaniards cultivated 
excellent tobacco, and also sugar-canes; but this I 
doubt. The native Indians aided Sir Walter's crew 
in their attack upon St. Joseph's, and the whole 
garrison (only thirty men !) were put to the sword. 

o 2 



292 TRINIDAD. 

As, however, there was no " Eldorado* 1 to be found 
here, the English commander and his pirates were easily 
prevailed upon by their allies, the Indians, and the 
Spaniards they had not put to death, to sail for the 
Oronoko, upon whose banks that fabled territory was 
said to have its existence. 

The native tribes rapidly disappeared under the 
tyranny of the Spanish yoke : they were transported by 
thousands to work in the mines on the continent, and 
scarcely a remnant was left when Admiral Harvey and 
Sir Ralph Abercrombie took possession of the island, 
in 1797- It is ver y evident, however, that under Spain 
this colony never was of any great importance ; so late 
as 1783, the whole trade with Europe was confined to 
a few bags of cocoa, and some indigo; and, whatever 
may have existed in the seventeenth century, it was not 
till after 1787> that the cultivation of the sugar-cane 
became general in the island. 

Next to British Guiana, this is the most important 
and the most valuable of all our Windward posses- 
sions. The great extent of territory, and the richness 
of its alluvial soil, not only afford unlimited scope to the 
agriculturist, but reward his labours with an abundant 
increase. Long previous to its conquest by the English, 
the French may be said to have obtained peaceable 
possession of this island. Almost all the planters that 
escaped from St. Domingo with any property, and who 



TKINIDAD. 293 

were denied a shelter in Jamaica from the narrow- 
minded prejudices and pretended fears of the British 
colonists, fixed themselves here, and many of the most 
respectable colonists are still of French extraction : very 
few of the old Spanish stock remain. Whether it was 
that this being a Catholic colony, or that our taking- 
possession of it was at a critical period in the history 
of Ireland, I cannot pretend to say ; but certainly the 
great majority of British colonists are from the " Eme- 
rald Isle." A number of Scotchmen are no doubt found 
here, as they are everywhere, and are distinguished 
as planters and merchants. England also can claim a 
full share of the community ; but the Irish certainly 
rule : the richest man in Trinidad is however, I 
believe, an American. 

According to the last census, there were about 2018 
males, and 1614 females, of European extraction ; and 
of these, about 600 males, and 500 females, were chil- 
dren under age. Of a mixed race there were 8700 
coloured males, and about 10,025 coloured females; 
and of these 3500 were male, and about 3600 female 
children. Of the native Indians, or Carribs, there still 
remain about 200 men, and 206 women ; and their 
families consisted last year of 148 male, and 138 
female children. A small colony from China was 
introduced here some years ago, for the purpose of 
teaching the negroes the cultivation of rice ; they did 



294 TRINIDAD. 

not however agree with the country, and only seven of 
these Asiatics were in Trinidad last year. They had 
all become pork-butchers ; but I am not aware that 
they have any issue. The pure African race is about 
8430 males, and 8159 females, including men, women, 
and children ; so that the total population of the island 
did not exceed 40,000 souls, on the 1st of January, 
1835, whereas, if fully occupied, and wholly cultivated, 
it would maintain four or five millions. 

Almost all the negro population and coloured inha- 
bitants speak French as their common language, and 
some few in the remote districts still understand and 
converse in the language of Spain ; but English now 
begins to be understood by all classes, though it was 
not till 1814 that it was introduced into the tribunals 
of this island. In 1809, petitions were sent to Eng- 
land, praying that the inhabitants might be placed 
under the protection of British laws, but they were 
not attended to; and in 1811, Mr. Marry at moved 
in the House of Commons, that this boon should be 
granted to them, and that they should have a consti- 
tution similar to that of Great Britain ; but both 
motions were lost, and the laws of Old Spain were 
continued in all their force, and with all their absur- 
dity and cruelty, till the commencement of the present 
reign. Indeed, it was only three years ago, that the 
Habeas Corpus Act was extended to Trinidad. The 



TRINIDAD. 295 

courts of law, as now modelled, are similar to those of 
British Guiana, though the forms of proceeding here 
are still ruled by the customs of Spain. Until the 
late changes were effected, the Governor of the colony 
was president of all the law-courts, and sole judge in 
many of them ; and his decision was final in all 
matters, whether civil or criminal. It was a perfectly 
despotic government. There was, I admit, always a 
Council of Government ; but the members of that 
council were, and still are, to a certain extent, named 
by the Governor, and can be dismissed at his pleasure. 



296 



CHAPTER XIX. 
TRINIDAD. 

COLONIZATION — COMMERCE, ORIGIN, AND INCREASE OF THE 

PORT OF SFAIN CHARACTER OF SIR RALPH WOODFORD — 

PROSPERITY OF THE COLONY REVENUE OF THE CAPITAL 

' — MARKETS PRODUCE OF EACH DISTRICT IMPORTS, EX- 
PORTS, AND SHIPPING. 

From the first settlement of Trinidad by the Spaniards 
in the sixteenth century, it continued under their 
dominion, without any interruption, till 1676, when a 
French fleet got possession, and kept it for a short 
time; but they found it not worth retaining, and 
very soon took their departure. For more than a 
century after that period, it must have retrograded 
rather than advanced in prosperity, as, fifty years ago, 
the whole of the colonial population, including white, 
brown, and black, freemen and slaves, did not exceed 
700 persons ; while the native Indians were more than 
2000. About the last-mentioned date, however, a 
Spaniard from Grenada visited the island, and was so 
struck with its importance and capabilities, both as a 
colony and a commercial station, that he proceeded to 
Europe, and prevailed upon the court of Madrid to 
give it a share of their attention. Many of those 



TRINIDAD. 297 

impolitic restrictions which were peculiar to Spain, 
and calculated to impede all improvements in her 
foreign colonies, were, at the instance of Senhor St. 
Laurent, removed ; and a royal edict was published, 
inviting all strangers, who professed the Roman 
Catholic faith, to settle in Trinidad, where they would 
meet with every possible encouragement, and be pro- 
tected for five years against all duns and arrestment 
for debt, whatever might be the liabilities they had 
incurred in the places from whence they came. This 
last privilege apparently was of the utmost importance 
to many a spendthrift, for we find that the colonists 
rapidly increased in numbers, and it is to be feared that 
much ill-gotten wealth was introduced at this period by 
thieves and swindlers ; but, as I have already said, it 
was the disturbed state of St. Domingo that principally 
led to the prosperity and increased cultivation of this 
island, and kept the community, in some measure, 
respectable. 

Many of the most respectable planters in Hispaniola 
had become convinced, at a very early period of the 
French revolution, that the ruin of that colony must 
follow, and they accordingly took measures for trans- 
porting themselves and their slaves to a more settled 
residence. Some went to the nearest British colonies, 
where being denied admission, the greater number 
eventually settled in Trinidad, which not only afforded 

o 5 



298 TRINIDAD. 

a wider field for their industry, but was more congenial 
to their habits and feelings, as a Spanish and a Catholic 
colony. Mr. Montgomery says, that the first sugar- 
estate in the island was planted by a Monsieur la 
Perouse, in 1787? and that, in ten years, such was the 
increase of wealth and industry, that not less than 159 
estates (large sugar plantations,) were in full cultiva- 
tion. But the old chronicles, assuredly, state that it 
was not till 1796 that the two first sugar manufactories 
were established, — one at Tagarete, in the immediate 
neighbourhood of Port of Spain, and another at Le 
Brea, near to where the Pitch Lake is. In 1799, the 
population consisted of 6500 whites and free persons of 
colour, and 1140 Indians. The slave population was 
14,110, and the quantity of sugar manufactured that 
year is stated by the returns to have been about 
8,500,000 pounds. 

Previous to the introduction of the sugar-cane, the 
colonists were chiefly engaged in the cultivation of the 
cocoa-bean ; and, with indigo, these formed the chief 
article of their exports, and, for a time, the only circu- 
lating medium, or representative of money, which they 
had in the island, and this, too, so late as 1740. 

At a very early date, some fishermen had erected 
huts upon the shore, and as near as they could with 
any degree of safety (from the overflowing of the 
tide) to the entrance to the Caroni river, which is the 



TRINIDAD. 299 

largest and principal stream of the island. The few 
trading vessels that visited the gulf, generally landed 
their cargoes and took off the produce from this point, 
— it was called the Port of Spain (Puerte de Espagna), 
and in 1757 had risen to be of sufficient importance, 
that the Governor of the island was induced to remove 
from St. Joseph's, and take up his residence in its neigh- 
bourhood. It has since that period been considered 
the capital of the island, and is now a very splendid 
and populous city, containing more than 12,000 inha- 
bitants. The original houses were, for the most part, 
built of wood, but these were almost entirely con- 
sumed by a fire that occurred in 1808, and laid the 
whole city in ashes ; and most fortunately for Trini- 
dad, and her now wealthy capital, Providence, soon 
after that catastrophe, sent her a Governor who had 
both talent and energy to cause a great good to arise 
out of a serious evil. 

On the 14th of June, 1813, Sir Ralph Woodford, 
a captain in the British navy, arrived at Port of 
Spain, and assumed the government of the island. 
I mention the date particularly, as it was during 
the reign of this excellent man, and active magistrate, 
that Trinidad first began to know her own strength, 
and became aware of her, till then, hidden capabilities; 
and all that the island possesses of wealth as a colony, 
—of industry as an agricultural community, and of 



300 TRINIDAD. 

respectability as a commercial people, she owes to 
the energy, zeal, and enlightened mind, of Sir Ralph 
Woodford. By his uncompromising firmness, he 
brought the rude and ill-assorted mass of the colonists 
into good order, and, by strict discipline, compelled 
the worst characters either to leave the island or to 
become industrious and respectable citizens. While 
he gave every encouragement and countenance to those 
who conducted themselves as gentlemen, he took care 
that it should no longer be considered as a refuge for 
thieves and vagabonds. His laws and regulations were 
all based upon such sound and rational principles, and 
such just and enlarged views of human nature, that 
neither the indolence nor the incompetence of his suc- 
cessors in the government have as yet been able 
seriously to affect the progress of improvement in the 
colony ; that progress, however, has been of late more 
owing to the wisdom and good feeling of the colonists 
themselves than to any impulse given by the executive. 
When Sir Ralph Woodford succeeded to the govern- 
ment of Trinidad, the amount of produce shipped was 
only 15,181 hogsheads, 274 tierces, and about 4283 
barrels, of sugar ; at his death it amounted to 30,629 
hogsheads, 877 tierces, and 5184 barrels. The quan- 
tity of rum, in 1813, was only 1745 barrels, and 29 
puncheons; in 1829, it was 559 puncheons. The 
molasses, in 1813, amounted to about 264 hogsheads, 



TRINIDAD. 301 

and 37 casks. In 1829, there were shipped 10,686 
hogsheads, and 596 tierces. The cocoa, which, in 
1813, was only 1,029,512 pounds, was, in 1829, about 
3,000,000 of pounds ; and it had been more. During 
the fifteen or sixteen years that he ruled the destinies 
of Trinidad, and directed the energies of her people, 
every article of produce was more than trebled, while 
the labouring population were diminished in numbers 
rather than increased. The slave population in 1813 
amounted to 25,717 souls, and in 1829 there were not 
more than 23,000. 

It was not, however, in the staple articles of the colony 
only, that such improvements were made; every variety 
of fruit and vegetables that could be found in the New 
World, or in eastern climes, was brought to Trinidad, 
and its cultivation attended to with the utmost care. 
A large tract of rich land around the government- 
house was converted into an orchard, or nursery ; an 
able and scientific gardener was brought from Europe 
to superintend the rearing of exotics, and it has been 
found that many of the fruits and spices from India 
are most productive in this island, — the cinnamon and 
nutmeg-trees more especially ; and, in a quarter of a 
century hence, both cinnamon and nutmegs will be 
exported in considerable quantities from Trinidad. 
An attempt was made to introduce the cultivation of 
rice, and men, as we have seen, were brought from 



302 TRINIDAD. 

China, who understood the process ; but it has not 
succeeded to any extent, though not less than 2658 
barrels were raised last year, which was said to be of 
most excellent quality. The Chinese have all disap- 
peared, except a few, which, as I have stated, are now 
pork-butchers. 

As Port of Spain was still in ruins when Sir Ralph 
Woodford arrived, he had the locality regularly sur- 
veyed, and a plan laid down, from which no deviation 
was permitted, either as to the character of the houses 
or the formation of the streets ; and, as stone of the 
very best quality for building was in abundance in 
the immediate neighbourhood of the town, no other 
material was allowed to be used. The streets were 
laid out in regular lines, and of a proper width, and 
all properly paved ; and squares, of large extent, were 
inclosed and planted with great taste, so as to afford 
cool and shaded walks for the inhabitants during the 
noontide-heats, or for the enjoyment of the refreshing 
breeze as evening approaches. Brunswick-square, in 
Port of Spain, far surpasses in extent and beauty 
many of which London can boast ; and when the trees 
have arrived at a greater maturity, it will form a most 
enchanting spot. 

On the west side of this square, the only Protestant 
church in the island has been erected, and it is a 
most splendid building, though far inferior to the 



TRINIDAD. 303 

Roman Catholic cathedral, which stands at the south 
side of Marine-square. Both these churches were 
built under the auspices of Sir Ralph Woodford, 
and are a striking evidence of the splendid views he 
entertained of what was not only calculated to promote 
the best interests of the community over which he pre- 
sided, but of what would be most conducive to their 
future prosperity and civilization. In conjunction 
with the titular bishop of the Roman Catholic Church, 
who resides here, he had comfortable churches 
built in several districts, and respectables cures 
appointed to each. He built and endowed schools for 
the instruction of the rising generation, and esta- 
blished such a system of order and regularity in 
every department of the state, and amongst all classes 
of society, that ages must elapse before his memory 
can be forgotten, or the benefits he conferred on this 
flourishing colony can be surpassed by any other ruler. 
Sir Ralph Woodford appears to have been one of 
those few men who are born to confer incalculable 
blessings upon the human race ; — to regulate the 
foundation of societies which are destined to become 
great and flourishing states ; — to show men the neces- 
sity of mutual co-operation and firm adherence to 
fixed principles; and that, when measures are well 
weighed and have once been decided upon, they are 
not to be interrupted, nor abandoned, to gain a tern- 



304 TRINIDAD. 

porary popularity, or to soften the asperity of a dis- 
appointed or detected faction. A vacillating ruler 
may govern for a time, in a well-regulated community, 
without producing material mischief; but in the 
formation or perfecting of a new colony, it is only such 
men as Sir Ralph Woodford that ought to be em- 
ployed. That the character I have here drawn of 
Sir Ralph Woodford was formed from what I have 
actually seen of his works, I can safely affirm, for I 
knew nothing of the man, and had scarcely ever heard 
his name mentioned till I arrived in Trinidad ; but 
that it is not overcharged, will sufficiently appear 
from the following statement of an able colonist, 
which has been brought under my notice since I 
returned to England ; and I must add, that this state- 
ment expresses what were the sentiments of every 
respectable planter when I was in the island. 

" Stands (Trinidad) where it did ?" 

" Alas, poor country ! 

Almost afraid to know itself." 

One of the most dangerous diseases of the mind is igno- 
rance, — obstinate, prejudiced, and deep-rooted ignorance. It 
is a moral distemper which, unhappily for mankind, is dissi- 
milar to all other maladies that flesh is heir to. For while 
this confines its painful effects to the suffering patient only, 
the former extends its haneful and pestiferous consequences 
to all those whose misfortune brings them within the sphere 
of its action, In proportion also to the degree of arbitrary 
power invested in an ignorant man, so must the chances of a 
tyrannical abuse of that power be augmented. Hence it is 



TRINIDAD. 305 

that mankind, when forced to choose of two evils, prefer 
yielding implicit obedience to a Chief, although he be in- 
vested with the attributes of Dictator, — provided he possess 
wisdom and humanity, — than to enjoy the name of liberty 
under the authority of one whose corrupt qualities, arising 
from the absence of education, or from antiquated, erroneous, 
and exploded ideas of government, must necessarily disjoint 
that society, and impede the progress of that civilization, of 
which erudition may be called the great cement ; and tend to 
encourage the vitiated to defy the laws which justice would 
raise as a barrier betwixt good and evil. If we throw a glance 
on the territories of ignorance and superstition which the 
Apennines and the Pyrenees interpose between them and 
regenerated France, and survey the rapid advance of the arts 
and sciences, of social comforts, in fine, of civilization in the 
latter, — contrasted with the continual popular dissatisfaction, 
revolts, tyrannical persecutions and punishments by the abso- 
lute Kings and Governors of the former, — as also the decay 
of trade and an insolvent exchequer, — we must come to the 
conclusion, that this natural difference among neighbouring 
people, descended from one parent stock, can be traced solely 
to the want of education in their Rulers, — that is to say, to 
ignorance of those first principles upon which mankind con- 
sented to surrender a small portion of their natural and indi- 
vidual independence, — namely, that their aggregate liberty 
should be preserved inviolate. 

These observations are applicable even to familiar society ; 
for it is obvious to all, that those families enjoy the greatest 
share of happiness whose parents are blessed with wisdom 
and religion. There requires no argument to illustrate more 
strongly the truth of this opinion, as applied to larger societies 
or communities, than to collate the happiness of our " Queen 
of Islands" under the wise and just government of Sir Ralph 
Woodford, the Father of the Colony, with our present 
wretchedness and misery. 

In the days of the virtuous Sir Ralph, the several districts 



306 TRINIDAD. 

were personally inspected by the head of the Executive ; — the 
statistical andProtectorate departments were kept to their duty. 
The humblest of the wretched and unfortunate slaves, when 
suffering under the cruel lash, consoled himself at least with 
the assurance of an appeal to the fountain of mercy. Great 
and good himself, Sir Ralph loved justice for the poor slave's 
sake ; nor was he deterred by the threats of ruffianly bullies 
and burglars, to swerve from his duty to the King, by with- 
holding justice from the humblest of his subjects. He allied 
himself to no party for vengeance' sake ; and suffered no offi- 
cious and libelling lawyer to lead him with apparent re- 
luctance to dinner parties and two-penny whist, to subserve 
his political creed. His seat of government — a model for the 
colonies — was continually enlivened and graced by the beauty, 
talent and worth of the island. He upheld the character of 
Governor and the dignity of his Sovereign, by a brilliant and 
educated suite, a magnificent equipage, with a corresponding 
retinue in splendid livery. HE never disgraced himself by 
appearing in public in the garb of a domestic, with holes in 
his shoes ; nor did he ever outrage the feelings of his polished 
host, by converting the convivial hall into a bear-garden for 
gymnastic exercises and other coarse amusements. Character 
and industry were the only passports to his presence ; and the 
steps to preferment were not upon a broken chest, or abstracted 
proceedings, — but by upholding the King, and the laws of the 
land. His presence diffused delight and information into all 
social parties ; and his sojourn in a village or mission was a 
jubilee for its population. By him none were condemned un- 
heard. Amity and confidence, the results of his urbanity and 
application, united the various departments and administra- 
tors into one general union of good-will, and sincere attach- 
ment. The free artisan and settler found always an equiva- 
lent for his services and labour ; roads were formed through 
dense forests, facilitating a speedy conveyance to the remotest 
districts of the island. In those days, rank was respected and 
virtue regarded. He inculcated by precept, and enforced by 



TRINIDAD. 307 

example, the religious observance of the Sabbath ; nor did the 
clergyman then preach to empty benches, and lament the 
desertion of the house of God. Our militia was the theme of 
admiration, its efficiency and tenue disarming the criticism of 
the King's warriors; the Artillery — that strong arm of the 
service — rivalled the line by its rapid manoeuvres and preci- 
sion of firing. The King's Prosecutor was made to defend His 
Majesty's black subjects from the rich and haughty ; nor did 
the then Attorney-General intimidate slave-witnesses by vio- 
lence of conduct, or convert his office into a " salon des dames.* 
No one in authority dared to abuse the power with which he 
was invested, to defeat the ends of justice by abetting the 
escape of felons ; for the innate love of justice and the vigi- 
lance of Sir Ralph Woodford superseded the necessity of 
placing additional curbs upon his subordinates. The Judges, 
the dignitaries of the island, and the few educated civilians, 
revered Sir Ralph ; — by the rest he was feared, yet admired. 
The virtuous tendency of his conduct, so novel in those days, 
elevated the female character in our island to its just pinnacle 
of admiration; and while it promoted sociability, saved many 
a youth from the snares of precipitate menage, thereby rescu- 
ing from that endless remorse which is ever its certain at- 
tendant. He was never heard or known to descend to impu- 
rities of dialogue in the Protector of Slaves' office ; nor did 
he ever propose to virtuous females to degrade their sex, by 
toasting, at a supper-table, a bachelor of questionable charac- 
ter. In fine, it was felt an honour, and indeed it was justly so, 
to possess his friendship, or even his consideration ; for he 
was in truth " the great and good Governor, without 
fear and without reproach ;" and though numbered with the 
past, yet is he still present in the hearts and memories of all 
— who love Virtue and abhor Vice. 

On the 1st of January, 1835, there were 27,905 
acres of land under the cultivation of the sugar-cane, 



308 T1UN1DAD. 

10,468 planted with cocoa, and 1219 bearing coffee; 
there were only 48 acres planted with the cotton-bush ; 
16 acres were bearing nutmeg-trees, and 16,97^ were 
cultivated in raising provisions for man and beast ; 
while 10,175 were pasture land. The total number 
of acres reclaimed from the wilderness is only about 
66,780, while, according to the surveyor's reports, 
about 175,000 acres have been granted to planters ; 
there are, therefore, considerably more than 100,000 
acres of appropriated land still uncultivated, while 
several millions remain unappropriated, and in a state 
of nature. 

There were 549 horses, 41 51 horned cattle, 4749 
mules, and 1867 goats, returned as the stock of the 
island ; but, independent of there being no mention 
of sheep and pigs, both very abundant, I am convinced 
that this is a very imperfect return. 

It is impossible to meet with better beef any- 
where than in the public market at Trinidad, and 
the price is only 5\d per pound. The supply is 
most abundant : — indeed, the regularity, cleanliness, 
and abundant supplies in the markets at Port of Spain, 
show the wisdom and experience of the man who built 
and regulated these establishments. They are the 
best supplied and the cheapest markets of any in the 
West Indies, abounding in fish, flesh, and fowl, and 
in every variety of fruit and vegetables that can be 



TRINIDAD. 309 

found within the tropics. Turtle, of the finest quality, 
is so very plentiful, that it may be purchased in any 
quantity, and at all times, for 5d. per pound ; and, as 
showing the extent of business that must be transacted 
in these markets, the duties levied by the town council 
exceed 6000/. sterling per annum. 

Port of Spain is governed by a Chief-magistrate and 
Town Council, which, after the manner of Spanish 
magniloquence, is called " the Illustrious Ca- 
bildo." The Governor of the colony may be said to be 
the perpetual mayor ; and the Council consists of two 
aldermen, who are called Alcaldes of the first and 
second election ; one perpetual, and eight elected coun- 
cillors, called Regidors, a procurador syndic, a secre- 
tary and registrar, and a treasurer ; these form " the 
illustrious Board of Cabildo," which meet for the dis- 
patch of business every Tuesday. In Port of Spain, 
which is now a magnificent city, and with the consi- 
derable patronage which it affords, and the disburse- 
ment of a revenue of more than twelve thousand pounds 
sterling per annum, and composed, as this Board also 
is, of most respectable merchants and others, its high- 
sounding title does not appear so very ridiculous; but 
we may well imagine how very illustrious the rulers 
of such a wigwam as St. Joseph d'Acunha must have 
been, when the whole inhabitants of the colony that 
were of European extraction amounted to fifteen souls. 
— Vide Chronicle, a. d. 1733. Port of Spain did not 



310 TJIINIDAI). 

become the seat of this illustrious Board till 1784. 
In 1786 the town was divided into four barrios, or 
districts, and two magistrates, or alcaldes, appointed 
to each. These alcaldes, in addition to their authority 
in criminal matters and in regulating the police, have 
also the power of deciding in all civil actions where 
the amount does not exceed twenty dollars. The 
police is well organized, and placed under the direc- 
tion of a very intelligent and active officer. This 
force consists of sergeants, corporals, and privates, who 
are still called the alguasils, and are all Europeans, 
chiefly veterans from the British army. As London 
has her Thames Police, so has Port of Spain her 
"Alcaldes de Marinha. , ' ) The Harbour-master and 
another gentleman are charged with the preservation 
of order amongst the sailors of the port and shipping 
in the Gulf, and have the power of fining and impri- 
soning all disturbers of the peace, whether on board or 
ashore. In all that is connected with the tranquillity, 
good order, and safety of the community, we can trace 
the hand of a master-spirit, — one who, taking the ancient 
institutions of the mother-country as a foundation, has 
built upon them a superstructure that will endure for 
ages, and that is calculated in all its details to improve 
and humanize the animal man, whether imported from 
civilized Europe, or as a savage from the deserts of 
Africa. 

As the town is divided into barrios, so has the 



TRINIDAD. 311 

colony or whole island been separated into certain 
defined districts. This became necessary in 1789, 
in consequence of the many worthless characters 
that had fled to Trinidad to avoid the payment of 
their just debts, or to escape from punishment. 
The chief magistrate of each quarter is called the 
Commandant, and where the population is consider- 
able there are also Adjoint-commandants and assist- 
ants. There are thirty-eight quarters in the island, 
but, for the purposes of the Slave Abolition Act, 
these have now been consolidated into nine districts, 
under the superintendence of special magistrates sent 
from England. The Indians located at Arima and 
Savannah Grande, and the black settlers at Mansa- 
nilla, on the east coast, are each governed by a Corre- 
gidor, or magistrate, specially appointed for that duty. 
These black settlers, I may observe, are the pensioners 
of one of the West India regiments that were dis- 
banded some years ago, and had lands assigned them 
on the windward coast of the island, where they are 
now beginning to show some symptoms of improving 
industry, and to add considerably to the internal sup- 
plies of the island. They not only raise provisions 
sufficient for their own support, but latterly have sent 
a considerable quantity to the markets of the capital. 
This also was one of those wise measures adopted by 
Sir Ralph Woodford: it may not have progressed 



312 TRINIDAD. 

according to the sanguine expectations of some indivi- 
duals, but I have no doubt of its becoming a thriving, 
and eventually an industrious community ; indeed, it 
already is so. 

The following is a return of the quantities of each 
article of produce, as made out by the Custom-house 
for 1834 ; and, as far as it goes, may be taken as 
tolerably correct. I have given the names of the dis- 
tricts, and the details for each, in order that the reader 
may have a perfect view of the actual condition of 
every portion of this rich and improving colony. 

There were upwards of four hundred ships employed 
in the commerce of this island in the course of last 
year, carrying more than fifty thousand tons; the im- 
ports exceeded three hundred thousand pounds, while 
the exports amounted to very nearly a million and a half; 
showing here, as well as in every other colony where 
a prudent and a proper system has been followed, that 
free industry is already of far greater advantage to the 
intelligent planter than ever slave labour could be made, 
even when under the most severe and unlimited autho- 
rity of the cruel task-master and his legion of drivers. 



JRN OF Pfe. 






p. 


Nulr 


TITY OF EACH. 






O T3 




,2 






s 


a 


i 5 




cS 


«M 




o 
O 


s 


1* 


. 1 


o 
c 

O 1 




© 6 

CO O 

11 


o 

CO 

PQ 


CD 

I 
pq 


2,143 


11 


21fi| 


28,261 


59 


100 




4,691 


6 


3d 


«M« 


484 


620 


119 


2,544 


2 


2 


~~ 


~ 


~ 


~ 


395 


~ 


^ 


^ M( , 


12 


4 


~ 


2,933 


5 


127 


29,724 


95 


202 


^2 


2,246 


13 


114 





33 


187 


3,750 


5 


103 


35,375 


11 


280 


6,261 


42 


329 


107,291 


20 


335 


122 


4,083 


9 


120) 


50,821 


~ 


206 


~ 


2,061 


~ 


** 


~~ 


378 


410 


2 


1,193 


4 


78! 


6,000 


28 


63 


~ 


1,416 
3,475 


3 


15 


, 


^ 


518 


30 


14 


81 


22,460 


107 


290 


6 


429 


9 


105 


~~ 


-V 


80 


„ 


1,600 


28 


114| 


~~ 


~ 


400 


1,350 


8,384 


7 


42l 


676 


975 


975 


746 


2,841 


<, 


137 


48,405 


7 


313 


~ 


995 


3 


33l 


4,525 


30 


18 


~ 


400 


2 


73 


6,000 


„ 


~ 


^, 


688 


4 


42 


14,947 


35 


~ 


*, 


2,707 


^ 


— 


~~ 


551 


314 


~ 


650 


2 


■»- 


2,874 


208 


235 


„ 


3,136 


18 


70 


6,000 


311 


388 


~ 


£,659 


21 


148 


34,060 


48 


111 


232 


285 


12 


41 


~~ 


170 


230 


~ 


1,694 


24 


86 1 


400 


517 


752 


31 


J,018 


60 


220 


121,986 


~ 


25 


~ 


2,421 


7 


84 


55,183 


„ 


„. 


^ 


3,472 


26 


180 


66,109 


214 


548 


„ 


[,138 


60 


244 


387,372 


~ 


350 


~ 


1,005 


31 


80 ! 


~~ 


249 


186 


~ 


>,290 


33 


43 


2,000 


1,094 


1,526 


~ 


,248 


20 


150 


29,987 


48 


401 


~ 


!,637 


21 


79 


80,595 


30 


28 


~ 


1,696 


17 


369 


67,542 


~ 


10 


~ 


!,842 


24 


518 


53,164 


29 


411 


3 


472 


„ 


„ 


300 


^ 


5 


5 


181 


6 


69 i 


26,100 


~ 


50 


- 


8,079 


549 


4,15^ 


1,288,157 


5,543 


10,571 


2,658 



ISLAND OF TRINIDAD. RETURN OF PRODUCE, STOCK, AND CHOI'S. 




I., i ii, <"<,.,, I 

Gnaiinjio 



Oropouclic 

Point-1-Pierro... 
South Niiparima 

T ;;" ; ;;";'. ( """ M " 

Tot.-il . 



I 27,905 | 1 



;,!ir,4 ic up,17.-, 



2,421 


4,(1114 


4,59G 


3,018 






2,900 


3,47-' 


8,377 


7,133 




1,005 


3,155 


.-.,211(1 



785 108,079 1 549 4,151J4,749 



:;.,, 11.41: 
187,27-. 

.0-11,1112 



■ :■.:>•(<■ 

96,666 

ll.Vl.lllll 



.9115,111(1 
,11113,11711 


1(1,100 
~700 


7.-,5,i;.-.i 

..-,111,1211 

, 1:1:1,711:1 

,11(11,7511 

111,11111 


-.7.71111 

107,735 
0,090 



2,315,057 1:11,1171 :i,:iihi 






35,37.. 
11. 7.2111 

..11,1121 



08,610 

r.,7 If. 



103,1117 
:1,7m 



.,.,,111:1 
60,100 

mi;. 372 



313 



CHAPTER XX. 



TRINIDAD. 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT AND COURTS OF LAW, AND MILITARY 

ESTABLISHMENT STATE OF RELIGION AND CHURCHES 

BLACK COLONY AT MANZANILLA — GENERAL REMARKS. 

Formerly the colony of Trinidad was under the 
command of a Governor, who was Commander-in- 
Chief in and over the island and its dependencies, 
Vice-Admiral thereof, sole Judge of the tribunals of 
Royal Audiencia and Court of Appeal of Civil Ju- 
risdiction, Intendant of the Royal Treasury, Judge 
of Crown Lands, President of the Illustrious Board 
of Cabildo, and Royal Vice-Patron of the Holy 
Roman Catholic Church. There was no Executive 
Council whatever, and his Majesty's Council, or the 
persons with whom the Governor might advise or con- 
sult, if he thought it necessary , consisted of six indi- 
viduals selected by himself, and who held the appoint- 
ment during his pleasure only. The highest law 
court was the Royal Audiencia, of which, as we have 
seen, the Governor was sole Judge ; while the inferior 
officers were an Assessor, the Attorney and the Soli- 
citor-General, the Alguasil Mayor, or Provost-Mar* 
shal, and a clerk of the court. 

p 



314 TRINIDAD. 

In the Court or tribunal called " of Appeal of Civil 
Jurisdiction," the Governor was assisted by an As- 
sessor ; and in the Court of Appeal of Criminal Juris- 
diction, he had the aid of the whole of his councillors. 
The Court of the First Instance for the trial of Civil 
matters consisted of a Chief Judge, the Judge of 
Criminal Inquiry, and the Alcaldes in ordinary. The 
Court for the trial of Criminal prosecutions consisted 
of the Chief Judge of the colony, and the Governors 
Assessor, together with the first and second Alcaldes 
of the capital ; but the Court of Criminal Inquiry was 
composed of one Judge only, and a clerk of the court. 
This constitution was given to these courts by an Order 
in Council of date the 11th September, 1822, and was 
a great improvement upon the still older system, but 
it was not till after the commencement of the present 
reign that the report of the Commissioners sent out to 
investigate our colonial legislation after the peace, was 
taken into consideration, and that in Trinidad, as in 
the other colonies, considerable changes were effected 
in the number and in the constitution of the several 
courts. 

The Governor has now an Executive Council as 
well as a Council of Government ; the former consist- 
ing of the Colonial Secretary, the Attorney-General, 
and the Colonial Treasurer; while the latter is formed 
by six eoo-qfficiis, and six nominated members. The 



TRINIDAD. 315 

Chief Justice, the Colonial Secretary, the Colonial 
Treasurer, the Attorney -General, the Solicitor-Ge- 
neral, and the Collector of the Customs, are by right 
members of the Council of Government, while the Go_ 
vernor has the power of nominating an equal number, 
viz., six members, from amongst the planters and mer- 
chants of the island. The Supreme Court now consists, 
as in British Guiana, of a Chief Justice and two Puisne 
Judges, with the Attorney-General, the Solicitor-Ge- 
neral, a Secretary, and the Alguasil Mayor, &c. In 
civil actions the judges decide according to the laws 
of Spain or ordinances of the Governor, but in crimi- 
nal prosecutions they are assisted by three elected 
Assessors, who form with the three judges that jury 
whose plurality of voices condemn or acquit the prisoner. 
I have already offered some remarks on the propriety 
of altering the constitution of these courts, and shall 
only add that they are pregnant with the greatest 
abuses. 

There are seventeen barristers and licensed advo- 
cates practising in the several courts, eight licensed 
conveyancers, and more than two dozen of solicitors, 
several of whom are notaries public. The mixture of 
tongues that prevails in the island renders a long list of 
interpreters necessary, but they are chiefly solicitors 
of the court who are sworn as such. All the pleadings 
in the several courts since 1814 have been in English, 

p2 



316 TRINIDAD. 

and the sooner that the laws of England are declared 
to be the only laws and practices of this colony, the 
better for the respectable and industrious colonists, 
and the more rapid and steady will be their march in 
improvement, and in the civilization of the people. 

The town-magistrates have the power of holding 
Small-debt Courts, and of deciding finally in all matters 
under twenty dollars; but, though there have been 
many beneficial alterations and curtailments made in 
the forms of process in the inferior courts, they are 
still clogged with several ridiculous forms and ob- 
servances that favour delay, and only tend to defeat 
the ends of justice. 

The stipendiary magistrates in Trinidad, as in 
all the other colonies, form a new power created 
by special Act of Parliament, and regulated in some 
measure by local ordinances. They were created 
for the protection and government of the negro 
population, who, though released from the fetters of 
slavery, are still in a transition state between absolute 
bondage and perfect freedom. Most of these gentle- 
men were sent from England, and had a sound discre- 
tion been exercised in their selection, and fitness, rather 
than friendship, made the criterion of their appoint- 
ment, they would have proved (as indeed they have 
done, with all their drawbacks) of the greatest benefit 
to the colonies. Where there were wise and prudent 



TRINIDAD. 317 

governors to instruct these magistrates, and guide 
them in the discharge of their duties at the first com- 
mencement, the system has worked well, and even 
those who seemed in the first instance the most unfit 
for the office, have become able and efficient magis- 
trates. But in other instances, where the ruling power 
was either ignorant or indifferent, the interference of 
these special justices was often more injurious than 
beneficial. Their conduct sometimes was evidently 
more calculated to create discontent than to allay it. 
This was chiefly owing to their want of experience, and 
a total ignorance and misconception of the negro cha- 
racter; though in some weak minds it might pro- 
ceed from a desire to make a display of that power 
and authority which they believed the law had given 
them, but were quite unable to comprehend. I must, 
however, add, that all the gentlemen I have met with 
as special justices were men of great worth and in- 
tegrity, and their only anxiety seemed to be to gain a 
thorough knowledge of the important duties imposed 
upon them, and to discharge those duties with strict 
impartiality ; and I repeat with pleasure, that it is owing 
in a great measure to their unwearied zeal and constant 
watchfulness that order, regularity, and industry, have 
continued to prevail, and to increase, so universally, 
throughout the Windward and Leeward colonies. 
The few incapables sent out on their first appoint- 
ment were soon got quit of, and their successors have 



318 TRINIDAIK 

been selected with more regard to fitness, and they 
have been more successful. 

It is much to be regretted, that men at a very 
advanced period of life are allowed to remain in 
situations of high responsibility, especially when the 
good or the evil destiny of a hitherto flourishing com- 
munity may in a great measure depend upon their 
energy and efficiency. 

The military force in Trinidad does not exceed five 
or six hundred men : it is generally the head-quarters 
of a British regiment, and, for some time past, has 
been the head-quarters also of the 1st West India 
regiment, a corps recruited in Africa. The British 
regiment stationed in this island, as I have elsewhere 
stated, sends a detachment to Tobago, and the 
military command is vested in the senior officer present 
with the troops. Very expensive, and, unfortunately, 
very unhealthy, barracks have been built at a short 
distance from the capital, while the old and fast-decay- 
ing remains of the wooden Casernes of the Spaniards are 
still occupied as barracks by the black troops at St. 
Joseph's. 

The militia of the island was originally formed 
of all the free inhabitants, whether white or coloured, 
and was so well organized by Sir Ralph Woodford, 
that it still continues a very respectable force. In 
another year or two, however, some important changes 
must be made in the organization of the local military 



TRINIDAD. 319 

force of our several colonies. When all the inha- 
bitants are free, they must adopt the same system as 
in other free countries, and select their militia by 
ballot. The officers, too, must be appointed without 
regard to colour, though for a generation or two 
the white man's mind will be necessary to animate 
and direct the energies of the black man's physical 
powers ; whether, (I may add,) that power be em- 
ployed in cultivating the soil, — in acquiring higher at- 
tainments, — or in pursuing more refined labours. The 
lately-emancipated slave is still as helpless as a new-born 
babe, and even the youngest of the present generation 
will scarcely have acquired a knowledge of the first 
principles of freedom ; the scholar, therefore, must be 
kept diligently at his task, — and even then it will not 
be until the third generation from the present date, 
that his instruction can be considered as complete, or 
that he will be able to guide himself with a due regard 
to his individual interests, or the claims of a well-regu- 
lated and industrious community. 

Cultivation of the mind must be continued from 
generation to generation, before there is that degree of 
talent or general knowledge developed to constitute the 
multitude a thinking or an informed people. The son 
must be made to follow the father in the same train of 
thought, and routine of duty, for a long series of years, 
before those duties become permanently identified with 
his mental and animal existence, or that his mind will 



320 TRINIDAD. 

be prepared to show those higher attributes which 
distinguish the philosopher from the savage, or the 
industrious and religious citizen, from the indolent, 
idle, and superstitious African. In my intercourse 
with the negro population I uniformly observed, where 
the African slave had arrived young, and had come 
into the possession of a kind and humane master at 
that early period of his life, and when care had 
been taken to have him, in some degree, instructed, 
after his arrival in the colony, that his children, and 
his children's children, were not only better con- 
ducted, but were far superior in intellect to those of 
the same class of the purely black population, or 
even to those who had an admixture of white blood, 
but had not been equally favoured. In a century 
hence, the natives of our western colonies, whether 
white or black, will be upon a perfect equality with 
their brethren of Europe, in all that constitutes the 
distinguishing prerogatives of man; but at present, 
and for many years to come, the white man must con- 
tinue to act the part of a parent and schoolmaster to 
his sable brother, kindly, but firmly, correcting his 
wayward fancies, administering such instruction as his 
improving mind can fully comprehend, and, above all, 
constraining him to follow those regular and indus- 
trious habits, which alone can render him independent 
or happy hereafter. 

Before we acquired possession of Trinidad, every 



TRINIDAD. 321 

toleration was granted, except on the subject of reli- 
gion : here no deviation could be allowed from the 
Roman Catholic faith. When a settler arrived, it 
was not necessary to say from whence he came, or to 
assign any cause for his having come ; it was quite 
enough that he acknowledged himself a professor of, 
or a convert to, the doctrines of the Church of Rome. 
Since it has become a British colony, all religions have 
been tolerated, and equally protected ; even the doc- 
trines of the Koran, as professed by the Mandingos, 
of which nation several wealthy and respectable indi- 
viduals have located themselves in Port of Spain. 
The Mandingos have long been known as constituting, 
in some measure, the merchant-adventurers of Africa ; 
they were, I believe, the best informed of all the native 
tribes, and all Mahometans, but were occasionally en- 
trapped and sold for slaves. How or why they accu- 
mulated in Trinidad I was not able to ascertain, but 
it is a remarkable fact, that they all succeeded in 
procuring their freedom long before the abolition of 
slavery, and formed a distinct society of themselves, 
strictly bound together by their Mahometan faith. 
As hucksters, or petty retail dealers, they have not only 
kept themselves above want, but, in some instances, 
have acquired wealth. When any of their nation was 
brought to the island as a slave, his conduct was 
strictly watched, and, if found conformable to what 

p 5 



322 TRINIDAD. 

they expected, his freedom was instantly purchased ; 
but though made free, he was not allowed to become 
idle. He was compelled to labour, and that diligently, 
until the society was repaid the money they had ad- 
vanced for his purchase; and even when that had 
been accomplished, he was held as still amenable to 
the general body for his industry and good conduct. 
The whole of these people confine themselves, as re- 
gards residence, to a particular portion of the city, 
and have persons regularly appointed to officiate in 
holy things. 

As thegreat majority of the colonists are still Catholics, 
it follows, as a matter of course, that the only instruc- 
tion which has been afforded to the labouring popula- 
tion has been by the ministers and teachers of this 
church ; but, alas ! they have as yet made little pro- 
gress. Beyond the boundary of the city, or town, of 
Port of Spain, no provision whatever has as yet been 
made for any religious establishment connected with 
the Church of England, or any other Protestant 
Church ; so that the Protestants who live at a distance 
have it not in their power either to attend the ordinances 
of their religion, or to provide for the instruction of 
their people according to the tenets of their own faith. 
There is only one Protestant church, and one Pro- 
testant clergyman, in the whole island, as connected 
with the Establishment. 



TRINIDAD. 323 

The only regular military chaplain allowed to our 
gallant army in the West Indies was (by accident, I 
suppose,) placed in Trinidad, and he remains there; 
but he has neither church nor chapel in which he can 
perform divine service, though he has a great deal of 
fatiguing, and often dangerous, duty to perform, in 
being called upon, during all states of the weather, to 
proceed to St. Joseph's, to bury the dead, or to read 
the prayers to the living, on a Sunday morning. 

Trinidad is the seat of the Catholic bishop who is 
vicar-apostolic for the whole of the West India islands ; 
and, besides his vicar-general, there are three other 
cures in Port of Spain, and nine that do duty in the 
several districts of the colony : these are the regularly 
endowed clergymen. Of late, however, there has been 
a great influx of Catholic missionaries, chiefly from the 
French islands, and even from Europe; but they 
were not looked upon in a very favourable light by 
the respectable colonists. The Protestant planters 
(now a numerous and wealthy body) were loud in 
their lamentations against the indolence or apathy of 
the Government, and of the Reformed Churches in 
Europe, who have left them so long destitute of every 
means of procuring the comforts of religion, whether 
in sickness or in health. 

There is only one Protestant missionary chapel in 
Port of Spain ; but there was a very zealous and, I 
believe, pious Catholic priest, that had commenced as 



324 TRINIDAD. 

an independent, or voluntary, and had acquired a most 
numerous and respectable congregation. He adhered 
most firmly to the forms and doctrines of the Roman 
Catholic Church, but rejected her authority in tem- 
poral things, and set at defiance the anathemas of the 
Bishop of Olympus, as vicar-apostolic. Morning, 
noon, and night, this man was at his post, teaching 
and preaching ; and, if his life is prolonged, he will 
do much good. 

The Protestant rector of Port of Spain is an 
amiable and excellent pastor of the Church, and, in 
as far as his delicate state of health would permit, 
while I was there, was most zealous in the discharge 
of his important duties ; but he had neither physical 
strength, nor mental energy, sufficient to cope with the 
many difficulties, or avoid the snares that beset his path. 

Sir Ralph Woodford provided most liberally for 
the wants of the Catholic colonists. He caused re- 
spectable churches to be built in every district of the 
island, and granted to each of the clergymen an 
adequate stipend. And why, I would ask, is there 
not some provision made for those inhabitants who 
are Protestants ? They are now a fair moiety of the 
whole people, and, for the most part, settled at a 
great distance from the capital, where (as I have 
stated) the only Protestant church in the island is 
situated. This is a subject that demands attention 
from the home Government. 



TRINIDAD. 



325 



I am quite satisfied, from what I have seen, that 
the forms and ceremonies of the Church of Rome are 
better calculated to make an impression upon the 
mind of the unlettered African, than any of those 
which have been adopted by the Protestant Churches. 
Superstition is a natural ingredient in the constitution 
of man, whether in a civilized or savage state; in 
the latter, where it is most predominant, the pageantry 
and apparent mystery of the Catholic ceremonies speak 
a language intelligible to the untutored mind which it 
can comprehend only. It is a language addressed to 
his external senses, and therefore calculated to make 
the most lasting impression on his limited intellectual 
faculties. The Church of England undoubtedly comes 
next, and is far preferable to what I would call the 
simple and sublime forms of primitive Presbytery. 
The mind must be cultivated before we can address 
the intellect with any hope of success, as man, in 
every condition, must first be taught the alphabet 
before he can learn to read. Painting and sculpture 
were powerful auxiliaries in the first conversion of the 
heathen Gentiles ; and forms and imposing ceremonies 
are, in some respects, almost necessary to arrest the 
attention of a mind that has grown up in total igno- 
rance, or indifference of holy things. The negroes in 
Trinidad are civil, well-conducted, and industrious ; 
though I am afraid they have not made much progress 
in religious knowledge. 



326 TRINIDAD. 

Before I quit this branch of my subject, I feel it 
my duty to advert to what I consider not only a cold 
indifference to, but also a most criminal neglect of, one 
of the most important duties which every man in 
authority can have to attend to. I have already men- 
tioned that when the (3rd, I believe,) West India 
regiment was disbanded, Sir Ralph Woodford caused 
the men who were entitled to pensions to be located in 
a well-selected district upon the east coast of the 
island, at Manzanilla. This military colony, under 
the able management of Dr. Warden, their corregidor, 
or commandant, has begun to make rapid progress in 
acquiring industrious habits, and in such knowledge 
as one individual could impart to them. They have 
long been desirous of having a clergyman, and a 
schoolmaster, and both have become absolutely neces- 
sary ; yet, though the arrears of their pensions have 
accumulated to an amount of several thousand pounds, 
and remain in the military chest of the colony, and 
when I left the island, were of greater amount than was 
sufficient to build a church and a school-house, and 
amply to endow a clergyman and a schoolmaster, they 
had not been able to obtain either the one or the 
other. I saw a copy of their memorial, in which they 
were unanimous in petitioning that these arrears of 
their pensions might be so disposed of. For what 
purpose, I would ask, are these industrious colonists 
to be deprived of the comforts and consolations of 



TRINIDAD. 327 

religion, and compelled to bring up their children in 
ignorance, when they have more than sufficient means 
to provide for all their wants? Is it because they 
prefer the doctrines of the Protestant Church to the 
dogmas of Rome, or that other colonial matters render 
it impossible for the Executive to attend to their 
memorials ? 

Owing to the good feeling, good sense, and proper 
measures of the more respectable planters, the great 
crisis of the 1st of August, 1834, passed over without 
anything like insurrection or disturbance amongst the 
negro population in Trinidad. I am not aware that a 
single day's labour was lost on any one of the estates. 
A few field negroes, on one occasion, came to the 
capital to ask some information from " Massa Go- 
bernor," and accidentally meeting his Excellency on 
his return from the town to his residence in the 
country, they began their " palaver " in a way that 
did not seem to please, or was not considered suitable 
as to time and place. Their appearance in such 
numbers, in and about the capital, did at first create 
some alarm, and the question of martial law was 
actually mooted in the council-chamber ; but the 
good sense, and sound judgment, of Chief-justice 
Scotland convinced the other members of the folly of 
agitating such a question then, and I believe it was 
never afterwards renewed. 



328 



CHAPTER XXI. 
TRINIDAD. 

FORMATION AND NATURAL HISTORY OF THE ISLAND RE- 
MARKABLE PHENOMENA — PITCH LAKE — MUD VOLCANOES — 

ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS ANTS, THEIR 

HABITS AND ECONOMY. 

There are few portions of this earth's surface that 
can afford more interest to the student of natural 
history, and certainly none more deserving of the atten- 
tion of the geologist. Trinidad, though dignified with 
the title of " Queen of the Islands," and greater 
in extent than the whole of our Windward islands com- 
bined, is still, comparatively speaking, a mere spot or 
speck in the great chart of the world. Yet in this 
small spot we find not a few of what may be considered 
the living representatives of the first inhabitants of a 
former world, the modified types of long-extinct races 
of animal and vegetable creations. We have here 
a beautiful illustration of what geology tells us was 
the condition of the surface of the whole earth, ere 
it was prepared for the residence of man; and we 
find almost every variety of material and of structure 
that has as yet been discovered by man in his subse- 



TRINIDAD. 329 

quent researches throughout what Professor Buckland 
has so appropriately denominated " the archives of the 
interior of the earth. V) We have the land fitted only 
for the support of vegetable life, or, at most, of a few 
animals whose forms indicate that their principal 
abode must be in the waters ; we have the mud and 
slime that had been deposited at the bottom of the 
earliest seas, baked into hard and stratified rocks, and 
forming mountains of great extent, some thousand 
feet above the surface of the present ocean. We can 
trace, in existing matter, almost all the changes which 
this world of ours has undergone since that begin- 
ning when God created the heavens and the earth. 
We have land still in that condition which geology tells 
us it was, ere the Almighty Creator, in the counsels 
of His eternal wisdom and goodness, had issued 
His decree, " Let us make man ;" and we have the 
same land clothed in all the beauty and verdure of 
perpetual spring, and constituting what may truly be 
called a Garden of Eden, an earthly paradise, filled 
with all that can conduce to the comfort and happiness 
of the human being. 

I am not aware that any mass of primitive unstra- 
tified rock has reached the existing surface of the 
island, but we have every gradation of stratified rocks, 
from the transition to the tertiary, and even some 
of later date. 



330 



TRINIDAD. 



^That northern mountain-range which evidently 
formed the nucleus of the whole island, is composed of 
clay-slate, shale, and slaty sandstone, while the lower 
range of hills are chiefly masses of hard compact lime- 
stone, intersected by numerous veins of milky quartz- 
The strata of the carboniferous order are as regularly 
deposited as in any of the great coal-formations in 
England; and iron-stone, black and compact, and 
ochry brown, with the salts of aluminous earths and 
combinations of sulphur with metals, prevail gene- 
rally, in larger or smaller masses, throughout the 
whole of these strata. 

That these strata were thrown up from the bottom 
of the sea at a late period of this earth's existence is, 
I think, evident; but whether previous or subsequent 
to the existence of man upon the more ancient por- 
tions, we have no adequate means of determining. 
We have, therefore, not only the detritus of a first 
dry land, that must have been accumulating for ages 
in extensive beds at the bottom of the sea, modified by 
the action of intense heat, and raised by the expan- 
sive powers of that heat, or of vapour, to nearly three 
thousand feet above the present surface of the same 
sea, and forming, as I have said, extensive mountain - 
ranges ; we have also intervening valleys that have been 
hollowed out by the action of the elements since their 
elevation, — valleys whose cool shades are now moistened 



TRINIDAD. 331 

by fountains of pure water, and enlivened by the never- 
ceasing music of purling streams; but we have equally 
the wide-extended Savannah, where it may truly be 
said the earth is still " without form and void." In 
some places these Savannahs are neither land nor water, 
but an intimate mixture of both. In other parts, the 
waters have in some measure " been gathered toge- 
ther," and form sluggish turbid streams ; and not 
only in those parts where the soil has become in some 
measure solid, but also where the earthy particles are 
still mixed with the water, and form a liquid mire, 
the whole surface is covered with a rank impenetrable 
vegetation, composed in a great measure of such 
genera, and even species of plants, as are only found 
in other places in a fossil state. 

In contemplating the enormous quantity of vege- 
table matter that is here produced in a very limited 
space, we cannot wonder at the breadth or the length, 
or even depth of those coal strata in Britain, which, 
after all, can be but a small part and portion of the 
remains of a similar vegetation that was co-extensive 
with the whole surface of a former world ; and whose 
growth, as their fossil remains show, was even more 
luxuriant than those of the present day. 

It is not in the vegetable productions of these Sa- 
vannahs only that we can trace a resemblance to that 
condition of the ancient world which geology proves to 



B32 TRINIDAD. 

have existed before the creation of man ; the living 
inhabitants are also, as I have said, the representatives 
of families, many of whom have become extinct, but 
whose existence can be traced from the first moment 
that the history of organic remains becomes associated 
with that of mineral phenomena. 

The earliest of the terrestrial Mammalia that 
have yet been discovered, are the small marsupial 
quadrupeds. This order was evidently the first and 
most ancient condition under which animals of this 
class appeared upon our planet. As far as we know, 
it was their only form during the secondary period. 
We find them co-existent with many other orders in 
the early parts of the tertiary period, and the Manaco, 
Opossum, Agouti, and Lapo> (members of the same 
family,) are still numerous in Trinidad. 

If we turn to existing fishes, we find more than 
one of the family of Sharks, a family the most univer- 
sally diffused, and the most voracious of modern fishes. 
There is no period in geological history in which many 
of its forms did not prevail. In the first, or transition 
strata, composed as they are of the wrecks of the 
original world, the remains of this family are very 
abundant; and in the oozy beds of the Trinidad rivers, 
and along its muddy shores, we have several varieties, 
with the noted Squalus Zygcena and its treble row 
of teeth, and large prominent eyes, so characteristic 



TRINIDAD. 333 

of those fish monsters of the first ages, and who were 
supposed to live only " in troubled waters. 11 

If we refer to the Chelonian and Saurian families, 
which have existed co-extensively through the secon- 
dary and tertiary formations to the present time, we 
have both these families very abundant and of great 
variety. The oxbill and the green turtles are so plen- 
tiful, as to be sold in the markets for five-pence the 
pound. The land-tortoise is to be met with almost 
everywhere, and, from the Cayman to the " Mat,'" we 
have an immense variety of the Lizard tribe, all of a 
frightful and destructive character, without reckoning 
the smaller fry, or such as are equally numerous in the 
island of Barbados. The crocodiles grow to a very 
large size. The Ophidian family is abundant, some 
varieties grow to a large size, and Boa-constrictors have 
been killed twenty-seven feet in length ; while the 
Mauccaw, a snake with a head like a bull-dog, is often 
nine or ten feet long, generally active, but easily killed 
when it has gorged itself with a full-sized agouti. 

There is another ugly monster of the serpent tribe, 
called " the double-headed," because it is scarcely 
possible to discover which end is the head, they are so 
nearly alike; and a variety very beautiful, called the 
coral snake, because its scales form beautiful circles of 
bright scarlet, alternately with black. The sea-cow 
(Trichecus manati) is an inhabitant of the Savannah, 



334 TMNIDAD. 

as also that species of otter called the Brazilian. The 
Porcupine, and the Mangrove-dog (Didelphus Phi- 
lander), the Armadillo (Dasypus Peba), the nearest 
type of the great Megatherium, are all most abundant. 
The great Savannah of Trinidad, which my excel- 
lent friend Dr. Fergusson, of Windsor, in his able 
reports, has likened to an inland sea, is as yet in a great 
measure a " Terra incognita," and it is only such of its 
inhabitants as have been foundbeyond their bounds that 
have hitherto been described. The mountain of Ta- 
mana, which rises nearly in its centre to a great height, 
has scarcely ever been visited by man ; no human 
footstep, so far as I could learn, has ever reached its 
summit, for, if ever it was attempted, no one has re- 
turned to tell of his discoveries : yet this mountain is 
only a few miles from the sea-coast. It might be pos- 
sible for a man, by care and watchfulness, to escape the 
Boa and the tiger-cat, and every other living monster, 
whether of the land or the water, but he cannot guard 
against the deadly poison of the marsh, or the noisome 
atmosphere which is generated by the decaying, and 
protected by the rank, living vegetable matter, with 
which the half-formed land is literally overloaded. So 
deadly is that atmosphere, that in a few hours it will 
destroy life even at noon-day, while during the night 
two or three inhalations will destroy the strongest and 
most healthy negro. 



TRINIDAD. 335 

It would be well if the deleterious effects of this 
poisoned air were confined to the boundaries of the 
Savannah ; it would then be of little consequence, as 
the pestilence might be avoided ; but at particular 
seasons it accumulates, and is spread over the whole 
island, carrying disease and death into every corner of 
the land. It is a remarkable fact in the history of 
these marsh poisons (first I believe fully demonstrated 
by Dr. Fergusson), that they creep up to the tops of 
the highest mountains with great rapidity, where their 
virulence or noxious influences upon the human con- 
stitution are increased, or, as it may be considered, 
concentrated. 

The mortality is greater at the top of a mountain a 
little removed from the plain, than it is on the very 
margin of the Savannah itself, or even in any inter- 
mediate stage between the marsh and the mountain, 
The men in Fort St. George were far more sickly 
than those in Cocorite, though the last is not much 
elevated above the level of the swamp, from whose 
boundary it is scarcely removed, while the first has 
more than a thousand feet of elevation, and is at a 
much greater distance. Though many thousands of 
pounds of British money were expended in trying to 
make these stations habitable for man, they have both 
proved so very destructive of human life, that for 
some time past they have been altogether abandoned. 



336 TRINIDAD. 

As yet no metallic veins have been discovered, nor 
are they to be expected in the secondary rocks tha* 
compose the mountains of this island. 

These mountains, I am now to observe, are evidently 
a continuation of the main-land of Cumana, or coast 
of Paria, which were raised into their present position 
by that stream of liquid basalt which, by its overflow, 
formed the nucleus of the island of Tobago, and which 
has left marks of its progress in the rocky bottom of 
the sea that intervenes between the two islands. 

We may suppose that that district of the continent 
called the Caraccas, beyond Cumana, is placed over 
a still-existing furnace, filled with burning or melted 
lava; and that a little more to the south, or under 
the equator, is the great store-house from which all the 
primitive islands in the Caribbean Sea have been 
thrown out, as I have attempted to describe them in a 
former chapter ; and we may further conceive, that the 
same, or a subsequent current, forced into view Tri- 
nidad, and those other mountains which enclose the 
basin of the Gulf of Paria*. 

That there is still a connexion kept up between the 
root and branches of this volcanic stream, is evident 
from the occurrences that were so fatal upon the 
Spanish Main, and in the island of St. Vincent's, in 
the early part of 1812 ; and as is equally shown by 

* See the plan of this supposed order of formation, p. 286. 



TRINIDAD. 337 

the frequent though trifling shakes of the earth 
experienced almost daily in Trinidad, and which, 
in my opinion, are the effects of the heated air or 
steam passing along some extensive void, or fault, 
left unoccupied when that liquid stream of basalt which 
passed under the island became cool, and had con- 
tracted its limits. 

That extensive faults or fissures do still exist in the 
rocks upon which the latter deposits have been formed, 
is evidenced, in the first place, by that singular and 
extensive collection of bituminous matter upon the 
surface of a fresh-water lake, well known as the 
Pitch-lake of Trinidad. This exudation from the 
Diluvial clay-hills is of the same nature, and produced 
in the same way, as the Green-tar of Barbados. But 
in Trinidad there was provided a natural reservoir 
(and of some extent), for the water, which, percolating 
through the bituminous strata in greater quantity 
and with more force, carried along with it to that 
reservoir the pitch, or bitumen, which in the process of 
time has accumulated to the extent we now find it, and 
where it has become altered in appearance and con- 
sistency by exposure to the action of the sun and atmo- 
sphere. At Point La Braye, where this Pitch-lake 
exists, the clay- slate-rocks which form the northern 
mountains have evidently come into closer contact 
with the liquid basalt This point is elevated about 



338 TRINIDAD. 

eighty or a hundred feet above the level of the sea, 
and is composed of these rocks altered to a state 
resembling Hornblende slate. It is in this mass that 
the chasm or basin occurs in which the fresh water 
is collected that supports the accumulated mass of 
bitumen. It may indeed be a question whether or not 
this bitumen was distilled from that enormous mass 
of clay by the action of the heat which has converted 
it into this Porcelain jasper of mineralogists, — (it has 
much of that appearance,) or that it exuded, as stated, 
through the soil in a liquid state, into this cavity where 
it has accumulated. And, in the second place, by the 
mud- volcanoes, which are so singular a phenomenon in 
the history of this island, and, in my opinion, bear 
positive evidence of the existence of extensive subter- 
ranean cavities. 

These mud- volcanoes are all situated in the southern 
point, or neck of land, the surface of which is formed 
by the last-deposited mud from the Oronoko. They 
lie directly opposed to the current of the stream from 
one of the largest mouths of this large river, and, as it 
appears to me, this stream is driven into one or more 
of these natural cavities, and compressing the air, and 
even the first-admitted portions of muddy water, forces 
them through the strata, until stopped by a vein or 
dike of basalt or granite, when both rise to the surface 
in the same manner as in common wells. 



TEIN1DAD. 339 

Shells and other submarine productions are con- 
stantly thrown up with the water and mud, and occa- 
sionally portions of a metallic substance resembling 
pure silver, or crystallized tin. 

The action of these mud-fountains is generally con- 
tinued until they form hills of some magnitude, and 
hence the truncated cones and bluff round hills that 
now give a diversified appearance to the southern coast 
of the island, and that fertility of the intervening 
alluvial valleys, in which some of the richest plantations 
in the colony have been established. Though the 
common pressure is not sufficient to carry up the 
earthy particles to any great height, it is remarked 
that the liquid contents of the caldron, from the pas- 
sage of the air through them, always appear as in a 
state of ebullition, 

The entrance to these cavities is evidently above the 
low-water mark, but whether on the shore of the 
island itself or on the opposite continent, I have had 
no means of ascertaining. 

That this is the cause of these mud-volcanoes is 
proved in some measure by the following facts, which 
are well established. The mud which they throw 
out is always cold, the water is of the same saltness 
as that in the gulf, and, when from diminished 
pressure or the condensation of earthy particles, they 
cease to act for a time, the resistance, when overcome, 

Q 2 



340 TRINIDAD. 

is attended with a loud report like that of a cannon, 
and is followed by a dispersion of the mud to a con- 
siderable distance around the chimney or aperture 
through which it is ejected. I need only refer to the 
common pop-gun of children, in illustration of the 
action which here takes place; the denser and more 
compact we make the retaining-plug, the greater will 
be the force required to compress the air so as to ex- 
pel it, and the louder the report when it is expelled. 
The pressure of the water during ordinary neap-tides, 
or when the current of the river is weak, may not be 
sufficient to overcome the resistance offered by the 
accumulation of earthy particles in the upright shaft, 
but when the spring-tides return, or the current is in- 
creased, their united force compels the compressed air 
to find its way to the surface through the old channel, 
or to make a new one through the liquid mass. And 
may there not be a dike of the said basalt rising up 
through the stratified rocks which stops the pro- 
gress of the water collected in the strata of the hills, 
and forces it also to burst forth here as a natural well 
or fountain ? 

The mud volcanoes and the Pitch-lake are at some 
distance from each other, but are evidently connected 
— the same formation ; and I conceive that the bitumen 
which now floats in such quantities upon the surface of 
the lake was first poured out into a chasm in the rocks, 



TRINIDAD. 341 

and then thrown out of it by the pressure of the water 
from beneath. Quantities are found upon the sea- 
shore, and for a considerable way beyond the low- 
water mark; and that no overflowings take place 
now, is accounted for by the water having found a 
subterranean passage to the ocean, through which it 
issues, and sometimes, as is reported, with a force suffi- 
cient to raise the opposing tide five or six feet. 

This pitch, which forms a crust over the water of 
several feet in thickness, is raised somewhat higher than 
the surface of the surrounding soil, and had it been 
poured originally into a subterranean vault instead of 
an open basin, and been subjected to pressure, and not 
exposed to the action of the atmosphere, it would 
probably have formed a bed of coal of some extent. In 
some places, it is as hard and splintery as the finest 
cannel or parrot coal, and as an article of fuel it 
resembles that coal very much. 

In many of the trees and plants which have fallen 
into this liquid tar, we see the gradual progress of their 
conversion from the ligneous state into a mass of 
bitumen or fossil-coal, retaining at the same time all 
the marks and peculiarities of that original structure, 
which is so characteristic of the vegetable remains found 
in the coal-beds in Europe; affording, as I imagine, 
a proof that the trees now found in a fossil state in 
the great coal-formations, were not necessarily charred 
or burnt previous to their deposition in the coal-strata, 



342 TRINIDAD. 

but must have fallen into them while the coal was still 
in a liquid or bituminous condition. With every respect, 
therefore, for the opinion of the Rev. Canon of Christ 
Church, I would submit that the materials which now 
constitute our great coal-beds, were originally distilled 
as a liquid bitumen, or mineral oil, from the vegetable 
matter (mixed with the Detritus of adjacent lands,) by 
the action of that heat of the subterranean fires whose 
elevating force formed the hills and mountains in which 
they are now found, and that by pressure and draining 
that bitumen has become solid coal. 

The Pitch-lake of Trinidad is about three quarters 
of a mile from the western shore, where it has its prin- 
cipal outlet ; it is nearly circular, and the diameter is 
about a mile and a half. It is asserted by some, that 
it sends off another underground stream, that passes 
across the whole breadth of the island, and emerges in 
the bay of Mayaro, on the east coast. This is exactly 
the course the liquid basalt must have taken before it 
gained the surface, and overflowed in such quantity as 
to form the island of Tobago. The lake and the pitch 
are probably not coeval with the appearance of the 
island itself, but were produced by the subsequent 
action of that same power which elevated the whole 
stratified mass from the bottom of the surrounding 
ocean, — that raised the Andes to their present situa- 
tion, and gave existence to the chain of mountains 
that run from east to west, and from whose lofty 



TRINIDAD. 343 

summits are derived much of that fertile soil which 
now forms the surface of the southern portion of this 
island, and the extensive plains of British Guiana. 

In the northern portion of the island, plains have 
subsequently been formed by the earth brought down 
from the summits and sides of its own slate and 
limestone mountains. In the south, the substance of 
hills and valleys are, as we have said, thrown up 
from the fountains of mud that are still in activity, 
while the Savannahs, or the intervening central lakes 
or lagunes, are gradually filling up by the accumula- 
tion of vegetable remains, mixed with the soil left by 
the fresh water that covers their surface during the 
rainy season, or the spring- tides that even now par- 
tially overflow them, but which, as I have said, are 
not yet fitted for the habitation of man. 

The fertility of the cultivated portions of Trinidad 
is only equalled by that of the richer soil of British 
Guiana, and were the facilities of transport equal, the 
two colonies might be considered as nearly the same. 
But in this respect Guiana will ever stand unrivalled ; 
and as to extent, could the whole island be made pro- 
ductive, it would not equal one ten-thousandth part of 
our continental territory. 

The colonists of Trinidad have been at greater 
pains to introduce exotic fruits and vegetables than 
their neighbours on the mainland, and they owe 



344 



TRINIDAD. 



their industry in this respect chiefly to the encou- 
ragement and exertions of Sir Ralph Woodford; 
he had seeds and plants brought from all parts of 
the known world, and most of them, it was found, 
agreed well with the virgin soil of this island. 

In the garden attached to the house which I occu- 
pied in Port of Spain, and which was not of any great 
extent, I found, with other trees and shrubs, the fol- 
lowing: — Several mango-trees of large size and full 
bearing (Mangifera Indica) ; several sappadillo trees, 
also of great size and most productive (Achras 
sapota) ; plantains and banana-trees in rows (Musa 
paradisiaca and sapientum) ; the avigato pear (Persea 
gratissima). The shaddock, a large tree {Citrus 
decumana). The forbidden fruit (Citrus buxifolia); 
orange, lime, and lemon- trees (Citrus aurantium, 
Medica, and limonum) ; almond- trees (Terminalia 
catappa) ; nutmeg-tree (Myristica moschatd) ; sour- 
sop-tree (Anona muriatica) ; the pawpa-tree (Carica 
papaya). The Otaheite cucumber is a most singular 
fruit, and its acid juice is most powerful in destroying 
colours. I tried it with many varieties of stains and 
printed cottons, and it seemed to destroy all colouring- 
matter with equal facility. I have not been able to 
ascertain the classic name of this fruit, but it is allied 
to the Cicca disticha ; it did not in any way injure 
the texture of the cloth. There were also the cinnamon- 



TRINIDAD. 345 

tree (Laurus cinnamomum), sl dozen or two of cocoa- 
nut-trees (Cocos nuciferd). The vine flourished and 
produced grapes under the shade of the plantain-trees 
There were also a number of vegetables cultivated, 
such as yams (Dioscorece) of different varieties; eddoes, 
or Taniers (Caladium sagittifolium), with okros, and 
many other esculent roots. 

On the mountains, and in their wooded glens, the 
same species of deer that is found on the continent is 
very common, and when in season affords good venison. 
Trinidad is famous for the number and variety of its 
humming-birds. I think thirty-nine varieties have 
been collected, from the size of the humble-bee to that 
of the sky-lark, and of the most gorgeous and splendid 
colours that light and shade can produce. The other 
genera and species of the Aves are nearly the same 
as on the opposite continent, but they are neither so 
numerous nor so varied as in the interior of Guiana. 
Several kinds of fish are caught in the gulf; but the 
northern and eastern coasts are swarming with the 
king-fish, called by the natives the " Tazar" the 
Grouper (old man), and the Snapper (Poisson rouge)) 
also a species of cod (mo?'ue), which are all very 
delicate food. Conger-eels and turtles of all sizes are 
found everywhere. 

They have a superstition here, that there is a small 
fish peculiar to this island. That it is found in no 

(A 5 



346 TRINIDAD. 

other part of the world, and is the most delicious 
food ever tasted, but woe to the individual that rashly 
partakes of it. If he ever attempts to leave Trinidad, 
his fate is sealed from that moment. If content to 
remain in the island his life will be long and pros- 
perous, but if he leaves its shores he dies. I brought 
home the stuffed skin of one of these extraordinary 
fishes, which I gave to Mr. Yarrell. 

Barbados abounds in lizards, Guiana is overrun 
with frogs, but Trinidad above all is remarkable for 
the number and variety of its communities of ants. 
Ants, indeed, prevail in all the colonies, but it is only in 
Trinidad that they become the object of chief noto- 
riety, for it was not possible to stir within the house 
or out of it, without having our attention called to 
some singular circumstance connected with the 
economy of these insects. I shall not trust to memory 
for what I have to state concerning them, but shall 
copy from my Diary a few entries that were made 
while the facts were before me. 

The ants to which the following remarks apply 
consisted of four distinct species, or varieties ; one, a 
very small and active insect, scarcely perceptible, but 
by far the most familiar and domesticated, trusting, as 
it were, in a great measure, to man's assistance for its 
support, and his constant attendant within doors. Its 
nest was either in some crevice of the wall, or under 




TRINIDAD. 347 

the floor of the rooms. It seemed so small and deli- 
cate, that I am sure it could not bear exposure to the 
winds and the rain. The next was a comparatively 
large strong-bodied black ant ; they had their nest in 
the cleft of a mango-tree growing near the house : it 
was too high up for me to examine it in detail, 
but it looked like a large lump of clay placed in 
the cleft, and attached to both branches of the tree 
thus : and exactly of the shape of an 
egg, with the broad end resting in the 
cleft of the tree ; it appeared to be 
about twelve inches in diameter. Whether they 
had formed here a permanent settlement, or that 
it was only a temporary abode, I did not remain 
long enough to determine. The next was of a still 
larger size, also black, and with large black wings ; 
these, it was said, were only the males of the 
second species ; but of this I have some doubts. The 
fourth variety were of an intermediate size, of a 
lighter colour, and with long white wings, which 
always dropped off the moment they alighted on any 
spot. There was a fifth variety, — a small red ant, 
whose bite was like the sting of a nettle ; but these I 
only saw in a barrel of yams that had come from the 
Mansanilla settlement : they were not natives of Port 
of Spain. 

" 29th of April, 1835, — Our dining-room and 



348 TRINIDAD. 

drawing-room are upon the same floor, running 
east and west; the dining-room has windows to the 
north, the drawing-room has them both south and 
north. This afternoon, about five o'clock, the whole 
of the windows and walls of both rooms, on the north 
side, became covered with ants ; those in the drawing- 
room division were black ants, with large bodies and 
short black wings; those in the dining-room, or 
most western division, were of rather a slender body, 
but with very long white wings, that dropped off the 
moment they reached the glass or the wall, or any other 
place whereon they could alight, and they immediately 
became as common ants. Near to the south front of 
the drawing-room, there is a large mango-tree, and in a 
cleft of this tree, at about forty feet from the ground, 
a colony of black ants have collected a large mass of 
clay, mixed evidently with cow-dung. From this 
mass I have observed for some weeks a black waving 
line, formed by a descending and ascending column of 
these busy insects upon the white bark of the tree. 
This column has entered by the drawing-room door, 
on the east, has made its way along by the south wall 
across the division-wall of the dining-room, passing 
over the top of the door-way, and entering a crevice 
in the wainscoting at the north-west corner of the 
room, where they disappear. Here, it is evident, they 
soon find the object they have come in search of, for 



TRINIDAD. 349 

they are not long in returning loaded with some sub- 
stance, with which they diligently pursue their way 
back to their nest in the mango-tree. For three 
weeks they have continued to labour incessantly in 
this way, and, what with the advancing and retiring 
lines, the space they occupy is about an inch and a 
half in breadth. I have swept them off and destroyed 
them by thousands. I have sprinkled on their patli 
the strongest acids and powdered camphor; I have 
poured nitric acid into the hole where they enter the 
wall; but all to no purpose. The broken chain is 
soon renewed, and though many were killed by the 
acid on their first entrance, a road was made over 
their dead bodies, which were eventually removed. 
These are called the scavenger-ants, and are said to be 
of great benefit in destroying vermin, and in con- 
suming the remains of dead and putrid bodies. I was 
told that probably there was a dead rat, or some other 
animal, behind the wainscot, and that the ants would 
continue their course until the whole was consumed ; 
and certainly they have continued for the last month 
with unvarying regularity, night and day. The over- 
whelming column, which has darkened the windows, 
and covered the walls of the north side of the room, 
have not in any way, either as a body, or singly, 
attempted to pass over to the south side. They were 



350 TRINIDAD. 

seen to keep at a respectable distance from the north- 
west corner, where their wingless congeners have their 
hidden stores ; yet, I am assured, that the winged are 
the males, and the unwinged the females, of the same 
species. Half past five, p.m." 

" 30th April, — Last night, at seven o'clock, I went 
into the drawing-room, and examined the windows on 
the north side of the room ; scarcely a dozen of the 
winged ants remained, and next morning not one was 
to be seen. The column from the tree continued its 
usual route, and seemed not in the least affected, either 
by the coming or departure of the flying horde. The 
little gossamer-ants, my companions and friends of the 
dining-room, occasionally appear in immense numbers ; 
but though the dining-room and drawing-room pass 
into each other by folding doors, constantly open, I 
never yet could detect one of my tiny friends beyond 
the strict boundary-line of the dining-room in that 
direction, though they were numerous in all the 
chambers to the north and south of that room. The 
flying species, that entered by the dining-room windows 
last evening, were different from those of the drawing- 
room : the bodies of many of the drawing-room visiters 
were one-fourth of an inch long, and their wings short 
in proportion, and dark : those in the dining-room 
had white wings, one-fourth of an inch in length, 



TRINIDAD. 351 

though their bodies were not above one-eighth of an 
inch. It is now noon, and I have not yet seen a single 
winged ant to-day." The next entry is as follows : — 
" 4th May, 1835, — A good deal of rain last night, 
and several heavy showers this forenoon : at the 
present moment, half-past five, p.m., it is fair, but 
cloudy and dull. I observe a good many swallows* 
on the wing, hunting very high in the air. For the 
last three evenings the winged ants have again visited 
us. A great number of the white long- winged species 
alighted upon the dining-room table, and it was 
covered with their wings, which dropped off the very 
instant they touched the wood. They appeared very 
helpless when they had lost their elevators, and 
crawled with difficulty. From a small table in our 
dressing-room, this morning, I collected a good hand- 
ful of their wings, but could see no appearance of any 
bodies. Last night heard the whistling-frog, the 
same as in British Guiana; although there are no 
pools or wet ditches in the neighbourhood, so far as I 
can learn. The tree-locust is at this moment very 
loud, though the tree where it is resting is at some 
distance; the noise is so shrill and piercing, that it 
appears as almost close to the ear. 

* " 22d of April. — I have just seen two or three swallows 
hunting for flies after the rain :"— first notice of the swallow in 
Trinidad. 



352 TRINIDAD. 

" 23d of May. — This morning I observed that a 
number of the white wings were upon the corner of 
our bed, within the gauze mosquito curtains ; but the 
ants had all escaped except one overgrown monster, 
who appeared so fat that he could scarcely move. 
He was making, his way slowly towards the side of 
the bed where I was dressing. He was discovered, 
however, by one of my little fellows, evidently a scout 
upon the look-out, and in a moment the pigmy had 
the giant by the throat, and there he pinned him until, 
either from exhaustion or suffocation, he expired. 
The operation was soon accomplished, and his little 
murderer, by some signal or communication with her 
fellows, had made the intelligence known at the hive ; 
for in less time than I have taken to record the fact, 
several dozens came galloping to the spot, and, hoisting 
the motionless body on their shoulders, set off with it 
to their own den. These little ants are certainly most 
extraordinary and amusing creatures. I sometimes 
kill a cock-roach to watch their proceedings. The 
intestines of the beetle, when trampled upon, will 
cover an inch square of the floor, and I speak within 
bounds, when I say that the whole substance of the 
cock-roach would weigh many thousands of these little 
ants, yet they not only separate every part of the 
lacerated intestines from the floor with the greatest care, 
but they remove the whole body to the mouth of 



TRINIDAD. 353 

their retreat, and there dissect it piece-meal, and carry 
it to their stores. There must be many hundreds con- 
cerned in the removal of so large a mass, and yet they 
all act in concert, and march in the same direction. 
I observe that they are very diligent during dinner, 
and carefully remove any crumb of bread, or morsel 
of meat, that may fall upon the floor. They must 
have some quiet method of communicating with each 
other ; for if one finds a prize too large for his indi- 
vidual management, he can in an instant call thou- 
sands to his aid. 

" The scavenger-ants have all left the drawing- 
room. I see the column is still ascending and descend- 
ing the tree where their nest is, but they no longer 
enter this house. We have had no visit from the 
black-winged ants since I last recorded their appear- 
ance on the fourth instant." These are the only 
entries I find respecting the ants. 

I find, however, recorded under the same date, that, 
" A hive of bees have made a lodgment in the north wall 
of the dining-room, about six inches from the window- 
sill. They enter by a small opening, which is covered 
by the window-shutter, when it is fastened back by the 
iron hook that secures it ; and I find that when the 
shutter is firmly hooked back, it completely obstructs 
their entrance. It is not often, however, that the 
servants are at the trouble of fixing the hook ; but as 



354 



THINIDAD. 



it has been done occasionally, the bees must have 
found it an annoyance, and, with the view of pro- 
viding against it, they have surrounded the hole in 
the wall by a ball of clay, of the size of a hen's egg, 
which, though it does not prevent the shutter from 
being hooked back, keeps it at a sufficient distance 
from the wall to permit the bees to pass easily behind 
it. I can discern no other reason for their having 
placed this ball of clay over their entrance, unless it is to 
prevent the rain being driven into the hole when it is 
not protected by the shutter. In either case, we have 
here a wonderful example of the power of instinct. I 
have twice removed the ball of clay, but have always 
found it restored. The bee is very like the meadow, 
or fog-bee, of England, small and short bodied. The 
hive does not seem to be numerous. I seldom see 
more than three or four at a time about the entrance. 
I do not think they have any sting, for when I 
destroyed their clay-guard, they were irritated, but 
did not attempt to sting or molest me," 

" 30th May. — I caught one of the bees to-day ; 
there is no sting. The head and breast are of a 
brownish-gray colour ; the body has five circles of an 
orange-yellow, and between these the colour is a 
dusky shining green. I removed the lump of clay at 
three p.m. to-day, and shall note the time they take to 
replace it." 



TRINIDAD. 355 

" 31st May. — 3 p.m. The bees have now completely 
replaced the clay-safeguard over the entrance to their 
hive ; it is even larger than what I removed yesterday, 
but is still very wet ; indeed, except for an hour or 
two, it has rained constantly since yesterday. The 
bees, therefore, must have laboured hard at their task ; 
indeed, they are still labouring, for, as it is now fine, 
I observe them arrive with heavy burdens of clay, 
which they place here and there so as to fill up a 
crevice, or strengthen the mass.'" 

I have copied these notes from the entries made in 
my Diary, on the days and at the hours mentioned ; 
and, although they may not be of much interest, I can 
safely affirm that they are correct statements of what 
I observed at these times. 



356 



CHAPTER XXII. 
CLIMATE AND DISEASES. 

TRINIDAD UNHEALTHY — CAUSES OF FEVER — LOCALITY OF 
BARRACKS BAD — ATMOSPHERIC PHENOMENA EARTH- 
QUAKES. 

In former times Trinidad certainly was, and I believe 
still is, the most unhealthy of all our West Indian 
possessions. In certain situations, and in many of 
the other islands in particular districts, disease may 
be more prevalent, and the mortality comparatively 
greater ; but in no other are the effects of the malaria 
so generally diffused, or so constantly experienced, as 
in this island. The atmospheric temperature is seldom 
above the average range common in these latitudes. 
In the plain in which Port of Spain is situated, it is 
about 86° of Fahrenheit ; but the range between the 
highest and the lowest degree, during twenty-four 
hours, is greater here than in any of the other colonies 
that I am aware of: the nights actually feel cold. It 
is not, however, any great difference of the tempera- 
ture that renders the island unhealthy ; it is that great 
extent of uncultivated land, and more especially of 
that land which is not fit for cultivation, which still 



TRINIDAD. 357 

exists, and constitutes by far the largest portion of the 
island. The poisoned vapour constantly hangs as a 
dense cloud over these savannahs, and from thence 
penetrates into every valley, and finds a speedy passage 
to every hill-top. Under certain circumstances, this 
Miasm, or marsh-poison, becomes greatly augmented 
in quantity, and more virulent in its quality ; and 
then it is that we find the fevers more frequent, and 
the symptoms greatly aggravated. This occurs most 
generally when the weather has been dry for an 
unusual length of time, or that the rains are pro- 
longed beyond their common duration. 

The town of Port of Spain, before it was sufficiently 
drained, and the streets widened and properly paved, 
must have been as unhealthy as any other part of the 
island, and it was long scarcely habitable. It stands 
at the south-west extremity of a large plain, formed 
by the earth brought down from the mountains that 
nearly surround it, and seems to have been placed 
exactly where the mud from the waters of the gulf, and 
the detritus of the hills, met and mixed. Marine-square, 
and the foundation of many of the now splendid houses 
in that neighbourhood, were covered with the tide not 
many years ago ; the sea, indeed, is retiring so fast in 
this direction, that, unless the buildings continue to 
follow it, the town will soon be left considerably inland. 
Every tide adds to the previous accumulated mud, as 



358 TRINIDAD. 

it is observed here that the water flows muddy, and 
retires clear. On the east of the town, the beach at 
low water already extends for more than a mile to the 
southward, and in a few years more it will no doubt 
be covered with vegetation. The whole plain, how- 
ever, as well as the town, has now been so completely 
drained, the brushwood altogether removed, the streets 
are so well paved, and the police so properly regu- 
lated, that Port of Spain, allowed to be the best 
built, and most magnificent city in the West Indies, 
is also as free from disease, and as healthy a residence, 
as any within the tropics. 

The mountains on the north-west boundary of the 
plain rise almost perpendicularly from the shore of the 
gulf; and Fort St. George, perched on the first 
pinnacle, is more than 1000 feet above the level of the 
sea. This, however, is but the first step on the chain, 
as the rest of the mountains are considerably higher, 
and the range, which extends to three-fourths of the 
circle, terminates on the south-west, at that corner of 
the plain where the town of Port of Spain has been 
built, and where it also juts out upon the sea in a 
spur, or attached hill, of primitive limestone. The 
road to St. Joseph's passes round the base of this pro- 
montory, and is continued in nearly a due east course, 
gradually rising until it reaches this old capital of the 
island. The barracks at St. Joseph's stand on a table- 



TRINIDAD. 359 

land, about 500 feet above the level of the gulf, and 
overlook the whole extent of the Great Savannah. 
This was considered an unhealthy station for Eu- 
ropean troops, as there was nothing to arrest the 
Miasm in its march up the hill. It might, however, 
soon be made a very healthy station, as it only 
requires to have the barracks built upon a proper 
construction, and the first floor raised upon pillars 
from the ground about ten or twelve feet. The case, 
however, is very different with Fort St. George, and 
the barracks at St. James's. 

It was either Sir Thomas Picton, or Sir Thomas 
Hislop, that fixed upon the elevated spot where the 
fort stands, and it was determined an impregnable 
fortress should be built, — a second Gibraltar, in fact, 
that was to enable us, under all circumstances, to 
keep possession of the island. An arsenal was esta- 
blished at the base of the mountain, and cannon of 
every calibre were sent from England to be mounted 
upon the ramparts, as soon as they were formed. 
The top of the mountain, though cut down and 
extended as much as possible, did not, it v/a,s found, 
afford room for the barracks to hold the men that 
might become necessary to defend these ramparts; 
they must therefore be erected on the plain, and in 
order, as is alleged, that they might be under the pro- 
tection of the guns of the fort, they were placed in the 



360 TRINIDAD. 

very cess-pool of the whole plain, — a most unhealthy 
swamp, and so low, that it is not possible to drain off 
the moisture. The river from the valley of Maraval 
also surrounds this spot, at a few yards from the 
barrack-wall, and from its bed, which is generally 
dry for six months of the twelve, as much malaria is 
distilled as would render half the island unhealthy, 
were it not partly consumed, in its progress to the 
mountains, by the trees and plants that flourish so 
luxuriantly. 

It so happened, however, that, after many thousand 
pounds had been expended, — I believe I might say a 
million, — in sending out stores of all kinds, even 
bricks to build barracks and block-houses, and in 
levelling hills and raising ramparts, it was discovered 
that no European could live where Fort St. George 
was to be built ; and that even the arsenal, with all its 
range of store-houses and splendid offices, at Cocorite, 
could not be inhabited, even by Africans. 

It is not meant to attach blame to any one for this 
useless waste of money. The position chosen was the 
most important in a military point of view, and it was 
only from experience we could learn that the atmo- 
sphere was so destructive to human life. Reasoning, 
a priori, one would have said, that a position so 
elevated must be healthy, and it must have been the 
prevalence of such a belief that led to the general 



TRINIDAD. 361 

practice of building barracks in high situations 
throughout the Antilles. But though I acquit the 
contrivers of Fort St. George, I cannot find any 
excuse for their having chosen the situation of St. 
James's. The barracks, it might have been dis- 
covered, were far beyond the reach of any cannon- 
ball from Fort St. George, so that had that fort 
been tenable, it would have afforded them no pro- 
tection. The locality, therefore, which has been 
chosen for these barracks, must have been adopted 
for some other reason than that which has been 
generally assigned ; indeed, if I mistake not, St. 
James's barracks were not commenced until Fort St. 
George had been abandoned. I would fain hope that 
these will eventually be^ abandoned also, and for one- 
fourth of the sum that they have cost the country, 
others far more convenient may be erected on a part 
of the plain where the troops will be as healthy as 
they are in England; and, however we may regret 
that want of due consideration, and the extravagance 
which led to such a useless, or worse than useless, 
waste of the public money, I should pronounce it a 
measure of economy, and certainly one of humanity, 
to have new barracks erected in a proper situation, 
and the buildings at St. James's removed from the 
face of the earth. 

One of the few facts that have become well esta- 



362 TRINIDAD. 

blished with regard to the laws by which the Marsh 
poison is regulated in its often irregular movements, 
has been most fully examplified in these barracks. 
The buildings are three stories high, but the ground- 
floor is not inhabited ; yet, for one case of intermittent 
fever that is admitted into the hospital from the com- 
panies quartered in the upper or third story of the 
building, there were three, four, or even five, from 
those in the second story. In the course of a very few 
weeks the companies in the lower rooms will scarcely 
have a man fit for duty, while those in the upper 
rooms will not have above one or two sick. It is 
therefore necessary to keep them constantly changing, 
and yet, as I have said, the lower rooms are not 
upon the ground, but removed full twelve feet above 
it. The cause of this sickness certainly is that, instead 
of leaving the ground-story open, and exposed to a 
free current of air, that would dissipate the poison, 
it has been built up, and only a very few windows or 
air-holes left. It is therefore a most powerful magnet 
for the attraction, as well as a store-house for the 
concentration, of the unhealthy atmosphere. 

The Miasm which accumulates here is derived 
from the dried-up bed of the river, or is that which 
is evolved from the partially-drained earth of the 
locality itself. The barrack-yard is the very centre 
of a hollow which is scarcely above the level of 



TRINIDAD. 363 

the Gulf of Paria, and on all sides, except one little 
corner, it is surrounded by land considerably higher 
than the first story of the building*. When I took 
charge of the medical department, on the third of 
March, 1835, every tenth man of the garrison was 
in hospital, and yet the troops were not considered as 
unhealthy. 

Sir Thomas Picton, with a view to overawe the 
citizens of Port of Spain, or to be able to dislodge 
any enemy that might get possession of the town, 
caused another fort to be built, on the summit of the 
spur that bounds the plain to the south-east. The 
elevation here is also considerable, and the moun- 
tain is one of those masses of hard compact primitive 
limestone, intersected with veins of quartz, which, as I 
have stated, generally form the lower range of hills ; 

* One of the most striking and evident proofs of the un- 
healthiness of any particular situation, is evidenced by the num- 
ber of vultures or carrion crows that frequent that locality. 
These scavangers of the Antilles are numerous in British 
Guiana, as they will very soon assemble in large flocks when the 
carcass of a dead animal is seen floating in the river Demerara, 
or in any of the canals, but they do not generally appear in the 
neighbourhood of Georgetown. In Port of Spain they are 
still numerous, though much less so than formerly ; but the 
barrack-yard at St. James's is at all times crowded with 
them, so much so, that you have actually to kick them out of 
your way. To injure or kill one of these filthy birds incurs a 
very heavy punishment, so important are their services con- 
sidered, and so necessary for the safety of the community. 

R 2 



364 TRINIDAD. 

yet when this fort was completed and came to t be 
occupied, it was found that no man could sleep in it 
with impunity for two nights together. It was in- 
stanly abandoned, and has long been pointed at as 
"Picton's Folly." It will hereafter form a "pictu- 
resque ruin," but never can be maintained as a military 
post. 

The mountain-range extending throughout the 
whole of the northern boundary of the island and part 
of the east coast, broken as it is by extensive valleys 
and deep ravines, interferes more or less at all times 
with the current of the atmosphere on the plain, and 
greatly alters its condition, by their lofty peaks at- 
tracting the electricity, and producing rains and tem- 
porary squalls or thunder-storms. The rainy season 
generally commences here with April, and continues 
till the end of November ; but, as regards the British 
troops, it has been observed, that the first three months 
of the rainy season are the most healthy. It was 
this circumstance, I suppose, that led Dr. Fergusson 
to call the rains in Trinidad, " Preserving rains.'''' 
My observations were not continued for a sufficient 
length of time to enable me to offer any opinion on the 
subject ; but, from the quarterly reports of the medical 
officers that preceded me, I should infer that after 
Midsummer there was more sickness than from Christ- 
mas to Easter. That it was either before the land 



TBINIDAD. 365 

had become completely saturated with moisture, or 
previous to the rivers becoming dried up, that the 
inhabitants, and more particularly the military, en- 
joyed the best health. The first period will extend 
from April till the end of June, and the second from 
the end of November to the middle of February. The 
rapid advance and freshness of vegetation after the 
commencement of the spring rains must add consi- 
derably to the wholesome qualities of the atmosphere, 
while in the winter months the waters are too 
abundant to admit of vegetable decomposition, or the 
escape of that Miasm which induces fever. 

The fevers of Trinidad are exactly of the same type 
as those of British Guiana, with, however, a greater 
tendency to acute inflammatory action of some of the 
viscera. I saw many cases in Trinidad that required, 
and were greatly benefited by, a free use of the lancet; 
but in the course of eleven months I did not see 
one case of fever in British Guiana in which it 
would have been either prudent or proper to abstract 
a single ounce of blood. The sulphate of quinine 
was not so absolutely required in the treatment of 
the Trinidad fevers, as in those of Demerara. 

In many diseases in which blood-letting is con- 
sidered by practical physicians as the most efficacious, 
and the only safe method of cure, I found that it 
could not be had recourse to in the hospitals at 



366 TRINIDAD. 

Demerara but with the greatest caution, and that it 
frequently proved rather injurious than otherwise. But 
this I attributed more to the bad effects of the soldier's 
diet than to any circumstance arising from the influence 
of climate, as amongst the officers and higher classes 
of the civilians I observed none of those Retrograde 
Liquescent conditions or temperaments which Dr. 
Jackson has so ably pointed out as constituting a pro- 
minent feature in the history of intertropical constitu- 
tions, and induced by climate or irregular conduct. 

That diet in Trinidad as well as in Guiana has 
a most baneful effect upon the constitutions of men 
during the long continuance of the rains, will appear 
sufficiently evident from the following short extract 
from a medical report dated the 31st December, 1828, 
which, as I am treating of the diseases and climate of 
the colony, I may be permitted to insert here. " The 
ulcers," says the writer, " have become obstinate affairs 
of late ; in the first instance they may have been the 
bites of insects scratched into sores, but they would 
seem to depend from their character afterwards on 
some unhealthy state of the system, not always well 
developed otherwise than through the sores, which, 
however, are seldom large, but slow in nealing, rapid 
in spreading, and frequently exhibiting the elevated 
indurated edge, sloughy base, blue areola, as if venous 
blood had insinuated itself into the adjacent parts in a 



TRINIDAD. 367 

thin liquid state. The surface of the sores frequently 
send forth this sort of blood, sometimes in large 
quantities, and sometimes there is a deep sore covered 
with a yellow slough. Some constitutional treatment 
was necessary, and was conducted on general prin- 
ciples. The weather had long been very wet." 

A few extracts from my daily journal of the weather 
will give the reader a better idea of the changes that 
took place, than any description from after-recollection. 

" 14th March, 1835. — I was down stairs before the 
sun had risen this morning, about six a. m. of the 
common clock. Darkness, I observed, scarcely disap- 
peared until the disc of the great luminary was above 
the horizon. A sleepy stillness seemed to pervade 
the whole of this plain, as not a leaf was stirred from 
the dawn of day till ten o'clock, when a rather fresh 
breeze set in from the east, not, however, a regular and 
equable breeze as on the continent, but one that came 
in gusts more or less strong. I observed that the sky 
was clear and cloudless until this breeze commenced ; 
now while I am writing (eleven a. m.) abundance of 
light fleecy clouds are to be seen, but they are of 
a gauze-like texture, whereas the clouds in British 
Guiana were of a compact and dense consistence, 
resembling mountains of snow. The sky here, I have 
remarked, is of a pale blueish-gray, but in Demerara 
it was of the most lovely ethereal blue colour that can 
possibly be imagined. The eye felt soothed and gra- 



368 TRINIDAD. 

tified by gazing upon it. The vultures could be seen 
at an immeasurable distance in mid-air, but here I 
observe that it is painful to look upon the heavens, 
and the birds are not to be traced at any great height. 
This, I allow, is the dry season, and the face of nature 
is parched and dried up, and the atmosphere in the 
plain has a suffocating furnace-like sensation, and 
wants that general coolness which was felt in Demerara 
at all times and seasons whenever we faced the breeze. 

" The trees here seem to partake of the appearance 
of the withered herbage. 

" This was not the case in British Guiana ; for 
though the surface of the soil might be baked into 
the hardness of a brick, and the grass destroyed and 
burnt up, the trees were more luxuriant, and their 
foliage greener, than at any other season, and it struck 
me as singular then, that when the rains had been 
continued for some time, and nature had put on 'her 
sweetest livery of green,'' when the grass had sprung 
up and the fields were covered with flowers, the trees 
began to shed their leaves, and were for a time either 
wholly bare, or one-half of their foliage was decayed 
and falling to the ground, while the other half began 
to make its appearance : in looking around me here, 
however, the trees everywhere have a sickly hue. At 
this moment the high peaks of the surrounding hills 
are attracting the floating gauze-like clouds, where a 
dark mass has been formed, and, as the sun passes the 



TRINIDAD. 369 

meridian, we shall have a shower on the plain ; I have 
observed this to take place for some days." 

"15th of March. — It is now nearly nine o'clock 
a.m., and although, till within the last quarter of an 
hour, the air has been very still upon the earth's sur- 
face, and not a ripple on the waters of the gulf, the 
white gauze clouds have been moving at rather a brisk 
pace across the heavens in a south-westerly direction. 
On the south-east horizon there is a dense black bank 
of clouds, larger than I have observed any morning 
previous to this, and while I am writing slight puffs 
of wind blow for a minute, and then again all is still. 1 " 

" 20th of March, Noon. — This is a cloudy sultry 
day, and, as usual, during the whole morning there has 
been a breeze for ten or twelve minutes, and then a 
lull or calm alternately every half hour. There is not 
much motion in the clouds. Many of the largest trees 
on the plain, and even on the sides of the hills, are 
bare of leaves, and the Bois immortel, that hitherto 
has given so much variety to the landscape, begins to 
drop its red orange blossoms, and to put forth its fresh 
green leaves."" 

" 23rd of March, Evening. — This day has been 
cloudy and dull, with strong squalls of wind, and at six 
p.m. there was a very heavy shower of rain. The vul- 
tures are flying high in the air, and the clouds are ac- 
cumulated in immense masses around the peaks of the 

r 5 



370 TRINIDAD. 

mountains, and to the north there is much blackness, 
and evidently squally weather."" 

" 28th of March. — No rain since the evening of the 
23rd ; weather very hot and oppressive. This day 
there is some wind, and the sky is clouded, which 
checks the heat of the sun." 

" 15th of April, Evening. — It has rained at inter- 
vals for the greater part of the last twenty-four hours; 
at first small rain, without any motion of the air, but 
latterly very heavy, with strong gusts of wind. I have 
been much interested in observing the clouds on the 
hills to the north of this plain ; when it was heavy 
rain and dark on the plain, the sun shone bright on 
the mountains and in the ravines. At times I could 
see the dense vapour blown up from the Great Sa- 
vannah, and when it reached the highest peak of the 
mountain it seemed to tumble over into the valleys, 
where it became speedily dissipated. At the present 
moment, the watery vapours are flitting across the face 
of the hills in detached masses of great size, light and 
gauze-like, while the clouds beyond these hills are 
dark and lowering, and the whole sky is overcast. The 
rain has now ceased, and it is a perfect calm in the 
plains, with a transparent atmosphere. In all the 
mountain ravines the steam seems rising as from a 
furnace ; the night is fast closing in, but the appear- 
ance which the late rains have given to the verdure 



TRINIDAD. 371 

is quite refreshing, and at this moment, though every 
valley is filled with vapour, the tops of the mountains 
stand in bold relief against a cloudless sky." 

" 22nd of April.- — Since the 15th there have been 
showers of rain almost daily, with very heavy squalls 
of wind. To-day it has rained a good deal, but there 
has been no wind. The mist just now hangs on the 
hill-tops, and to the north it looks dark and cloudy. 
The wind for some time has been more westerly 
than it was ever known, and this the 4 wise men' say 
betokens much sickness. We have had a good many 
admissions into hospital during the last few days, 
and the inhabitants begin to suffer from intermittent 
fever. Vegetation advances rapidly, and the hum- 
ming birds are as thick as butterflies after a summer 
shower in England, and seem to watch the opening 
of every flower. Their colours are most brilliant, and 
many of them appear not larger than a common 
wild bee. The fire-flies are in great numbers amongst 
the topmost branches of the most lofty trees, and far 
surpass the beauty of any Vauxhall illumination. 
They are not so abundant here as at Demerara, where 
often the whole surface of the earth appeared as a 
blaze of fire, and yet my friend Dr. Fraser, a keen 
observer of nature, assured me that of late years they 
had become much less numerous than they formerly 
were in the neighbourhood of Georgetown.'" 



372 TRINIDAD. 

" 29th of April. — This has been a remarkably fine 
day, fresh breezes and a cloudy sky." 

" 4th of May. — A good deal of rain in the night, and 
several heavy showers during the day ; at this moment, 
half-past five p.m., it is fair, but cloudy and dull. The 
tree-locust has been very loud and shrill since the rain 
ceased, while the whistling-frog is playing in concert 
The watery vapours are rising fast to the tops of the 
hills, where they instantly disappear.'" 

" 8th of May. — No rain for the last two days. 
Two p.m. The tops of the hills are covered with a 
thick black cap; — the valleys are full of vapour. 
The wind comes down upon the plain in strong puffs, 
but as yet no rain has fallen at Port of Spain, though 
it is evidently abundant all around us." 

" 13th of May. — The mosquitos for the first time 
since my arrival begin to be troublesome, but they are 
very puny insects compared with those in British 
Guiana." 

" 30th of May. — After two days of heavy rain, we 
have now (six p.m.) one of those beautiful evenings 
that are so delightful in this balmy climate ; — the sky 
clear and serene, and the hills, opposite the window at 
which I am writing, reflect the rays of the setting sun 
with a thousand varieties of shade, that change in bril- 
liancy and brightness with every passing moment." 

" 31st of May. — It has rained for the greatest part 



TRINIDAD. > 373 

of the last twenty-four hours ; but again the evening 
is fine." 

I left Trinidad on the fifth of June, and had no 
opportunity of taking any further note of the weather. 
I have not thought it necessary to give any journal 
of the rising or falling of the thermometer; and 
the reader, I suppose, knows that the barometer 
seldom varies within the tropics. I may, however, 
state that the thermometer was seldom above 90° in 
the shade, and during the night it sometimes fell to 
70° ; but the average of the three months that I kept 
a register was 86°, as already stated. 

The plain and the gulf, as far as could be observed, 
generally remained in quiet repose from sun-rise till 
after nine o'clock, when the breeze made its appear- 
ance; the mornings, therefore, were the most sultry 
period of the day, — the evenings the most refreshing. 

There were two slight shocks of an earthquake, 
during my residence ; one on the night of the 17th of 
March, and the other on the 20th of May : they were 
neither of long duration, nor very violent, but the noise 
was singular, and they induced something like sea-sick- 
ness, at least I found this in my own case, and others 
confessed the same. The noise here, however, was 
nothing to that which I experienced at Alcoentre, 
near Lisbon, on the night of the 25th of October, 
1809. On that occasion, the houses were shaken to 



374 TRINIDAD. 

their very foundations, though happily very little 
damage was done, and the noise was as if a thousand 
heavy wagons were galloping along the street. 

At Port of Spain it was simply the rattling of the 
doors and windows for a moment, and nothing more. 
They are frequently, however, much more severe ; one, 
a few years ago, threw down the spire of the Protestant 
church, and injured several houses in the town, and 
occasioned no small alarm to the terrified inhabitants. 
I do not find that there is any record of these convul- 
sions of nature having ever been of a more serious cha- 
racter. When the Caraccas were nearly destroyed, in 
1812, the shock was not felt in Trinidad; and it is 
rather singular, that the eruption in St. Vincenfs, 
which so alarmed the Barbadians, and caused the 
garrison to be kept under arms all night, was also 
heard at Trinidad. During the whole of the 1st of 
May, 1812, the inhabitants throughout the island 
were kept in a state of alarm, expecting the approach 
of an enemy, from the continued firing of what they 
supposed to be, heavy ordnance at sea, to the north- 
east. The reader, on turning to page 44, will see 
that it was about midnight of the 30th of April that 
the same sounds alarmed the Barbadians ; and it is a 
singular fact, that as these sounds died away in this 
direction, they began to be heard in Trinidad. The 
volcanic dust did not reach this island : and it was 



TRINIDAD. 375 

in no way affected by those convulsive throes which 
made the island of St. Vincent's appear as if it were a 
small Barque floating on the surface of an agitated 
ocean. 

In conclusion, I have only to remark that, as agri- 
culture and improvements advance, the climate of 
Trinidad will improve; but until the sea has further 
receded, and the marsh-land has acquired a higher 
elevation and become more consolidated, there will 
always exist a more than ordinary supply of that 
subtile poison which is so destructive to the human 
race. Yet, when we have such evident proofs of what 
may be effected, and of what has been effected, in the 
last twenty years, by industry and good regulations, 
we may readily believe that it will yet become a most 
healthy, as it certainly is a very desirable residence. 

I am afraid the scientific reader will not find much 
to interest him in my crude theories ; they are, perhaps, 
neither wisely conceived nor clearly explained, and yet 
they are of some value as directing the attention of 
geologists and others to objects of deep importance, 
and well calculated to explain many of the yet obscure 
pages in " the history of the Creation. ' I am only a 
dabbler in natural history, and not much acquainted 
with the records of modern geology, but I have been a 
keen observer of " the wonderful works of God" from 
my earliest years, and have sought for information in 



376 TRINIDAD. 

the fields and forests rather than in the pages of sys- 
tematic writers. 

With regard to the diet and discipline of British 
troops in the Colonies, to which my professional duties 
compelled my more immediate attention, I have 
spoken with great freedom, and expressed strongly 
my unbiassed opinion, — an opinion founded upon a 
careful examination of the subject for the last thirty 
years. It is to be regretted that so many well-mean- 
ing, but certainly mistaken men, have persisted in 
agitating a question that can tend to no good, and 
has already gone far to interfere with the well-being 
of the British army. Language and expressions are 
made use of in the senate that find their way into the 
barrack-room, and excite feelings and sentiments which 
would never otherwise have been known or heard of. 

The speeches and declamations of some of our 
senators, and the exertions of a portion of the daily 
press, have had the effect of exciting that degree of 
mutiny and insubordination in the soldiers at home, 
which, in whatever way it may be dealt with here, will 
undoubtedly lead, if persisted in, to the necessity of 
more than one being shot when they arrive in the 
Colonies. I have distinctly pointed out the only sure 
way in which we can improve their condition, and 
ensure steady discipline. 

The great and good Duke of York left Britain 



TRINIDAD. 377 

an army such as she never before possessed, and his 
able successors at the Horse Guards would have 
maintained it in its fullest integrity, had their labours 
not been interfered with, and their measures opposed by 
public clamour. A proper severity is often the greatest 
humanity, and a doubting and dilatory commander 
will never have an effective or well-constituted army. 

In the sketches which I have given of the condition 
of the inhabitants of our West India Colonies, I have 
been desirous above all things of bearing my humble 
testimony to the complete success of that great mea- 
sure, which will for ever immortalize the glorious 
reign of King William the Fourth, — a measure by 
which all his Majesty's subjects were made free, and 
which has proved not less a blessing to those who 
gave, than to those who received the boon. The facts 
I have brought forward, supported as they are by 
official and authentic documents, clearly show that 
that dawn of prosperity has commenced in our late 
slave Colonies which is calculated to have no limit. 
I have also endeavoured to put upon record the names 
of a few of the most distinguished individuals who 
boldly met and patiently overcame every difficulty, 
and to whom, under God, these Colonies are indebted 
for all the happiness and prosperity they now enjoy. 

It is to be observed, that my remarks apply 
altogether to the Windward and Leeward Islands ; 



378 TRINIDAD. 

I know nothing of Jamaica, but the reports from 
that island would lead me to believe that matters 
had not been conducted with the same conciliating 
spirit and sound discretion that guided the authorities 
in the lesser states. Jamaica, however, has now an 
able and most honourable officer at the head of her 
affairs, and if it is possible for firmness, decision, and 
sound views of what is due to the welfare of the 
colonists and to the paramount interests of the negro 
population, to correct the irregularities which evidently 
have continued to prevail in that colony, and to secure 
peace and prosperity, Sir Lionel Smith is just the 
man they required. 



379 



At page 135, the reader will find a few remarks as to 
the necessity for some alteration in the law that regu- 
lated the qualification for the exercise of the elective 
franchise in British Guiana. I have just received 
an Ordinance from that colony which appears to me a 
very excellent arrangement; and had it done away 
with the College of Keysers altogether, and allowed 
the qualified voters to return the members of the 
Court of Policy at once, it would, in my humble 
opinion, have been a still more perfect measure. 

I have also added here the Ordinance by which 
vestries are constituted for regulating and superin- 
tending the building and keeping in repair the 
established churches in Berbice; together with the 
publication, dividing the lately-constituted parishes 
between the two establishments of the mother-country. 
These form the Appendix No. I. In No. II. I have 
given the late Dr. Maycock's very complete Catalogue 
of the Plants in our Colonies, the most perfect that has 
ever yet been published. 



380 appendix i. 

No. I. 
An Ordinance regulating the Qualification for the 

EXERCISE OF THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE IN BRITISH 

Guiana. 

By his Excellency Major-General Sir James Carmichael 
Smyth, Bart., Companion of the Most Honourable 
the Military Order of the Bath, Knight Commander 
of the Royal Order of Hanover, Knight of the Austrian 
Imperial Order of Maria Theresa, Knight of the 
Russian Imperial Order of St. Wladimir, Governor 
and Commander-in-Chief in and over the Colony of 
British Guiana, Vice-Admiral and Ordinary of the 
same, &c, &c, &c. — By and with the advice and con- 
sent of the Honourable Court of Policy of the said 
Colony. 

To all whom these presents do, may, or shall come, greeting ! 
be it known : — 

Whereas upon the second day of May, 1835, his Excellency 
the Lieutenant-Governor, by and with the advice and consent 
of the Honourable the Court of Policy of British Guiana, 
framed and passed an ordinance, intituled " An Ordinance to 
establish a new Qualification for the exercise of the Elective 
Franchise in this Colony :" And whereas it is expedient and 
necessary that the same should be repealed : 

Be it therefore enacted, as it is hereby enacted, that from 
and after the passing and publication of this ordinance, the 
said ordinance, intituled " An Ordinance to establish a new 
Qualification for the Elective Franchise in this Colony," shall 
be, and the same is hereby declared to be, repealed, 

1. And be it enacted, that from and after the taking effect 
of this ordinance, every inhabitant of this colony, of full age 
and not subject to any legal disability, who, for himself, or as 
curator, administrator, sequestrator, executor, guardian, or in 
any other capacity, shall have been assessed to pay direct 



APPENDIX I. 381 

taxes to the colonial revenue upon an income of not less than 
2001 guilders, or who shall have paid direct taxes to the 
amount of seventy guilders or upwards, in the year of, or in 
the year preceding, any new election of a member of the 
College of Electors, or of the College of Financial Represen- 
tatives of this colony, or who after the publication of this 
ordinance shall be assessed upon an income of the amount as 
aforesaid, or who shall be assessed and liable to pay to the 
colonial revenue of the said colony direct taxes to the amount 
of seventy guilders or upwards, and not being in arrear in the 
payment of such taxes for more than six months from the date 
of such taxes becoming payable, shall be entitled to vote upon 
and for the election of any such member of the respective 
Colleges aforesaid. 

2. And be it further enacted, that where two or more 
persons shall possess jointly, or in common, any estate or plan- 
tation, or shall be connected as partners in any trade, business, 
or profession, jointly returning or paying direct taxes to the 
colonial receiver, each and every of such possessors or partners 
shall be entitled to vote as aforesaid : Provided that the 
amount of direct taxes by them jointly paid or payable (when 
divided by the number of persons paying the same,) shall be 
sufficient to give or leave to each of such possessors or partners 
a proportion amounting to the sum of seventy guilders ; and 
provided further, that every such possessor or partner, claiming 
a right to vote, shall be bound to prove annually, by the 
affidavit of himself, or of some other credible person, before a 
magistrate or justice of the peace, who is hereby authorised 
and required to administer the same without fee or reward, 
that his individual share of such direct taxes amounts to 
seventy guilders ; which affidavit, to be made as aforesaid, 
shall be lodged at the office of the Financial Accountant in 
Georgetown, or at the office of the Assistant-Receiver-General 
in New Amsterdam. 

3. And be it enacted, that every person possessing a right 
to vote as aforesaid, and who shall be absent from the colony, 



382 APPENDIX I. 

shall be entitled to vote by his or her agent or attorney : Pro- 
vided always, that the name or names of the party or parties 
absent from the colony, in whose behalf any vote or votes are 
given, shall be fully set forth in such vote or votes. And be 
it further enacted, that in every case in which any property 
affording a qualification or qualifications for voting as afore- 
said is administered by sequestrators, curators, administrators, 
executors, guardians, or trustees, such sequestrators and 
others as aforesaid, shall be entitled to vote in respect of such 
property on behalf of the owner or owners thereof: Provided 
always, that the number of votes received or receivable in 
respect thereof shall not exceed the number of votes which, 
under this ordinance, it would be competent for the owner or 
owners thereof, if in the immediate administration thereof, 
and directly exercising the right of voting, to give ; provided 
further, that in cases where such property is owned jointly or 
in common by two or more persons, the affidavit relating 
thereto, as prescribed in the second section of this ordinance, 
shall be made and given in. 

4. And be it further enacted, that in each and every year, 
commencing with the year 1837, the Financial Accountant in 
Georgetown, and the Assistant Receiver-General in New 
Amsterdam, shall be bound, and they are each of them hereby 
required, within one calendar month from the last day fixed 
by law for giving in at the offices of the said Financial 
Accountant, and Assistant-Receiver-General, the annual 
returns for colonial taxes, to make out from such returns, or 
in cases of partnership or joint property, from the affidavits 
thereunto relating, as hereinbefore required, a list or registry 
of the names of all persons in the respective districts, who 
shall appear by such returns and affidavits to be prima facie 
qualified to vote as aforesaid, and in such list or register the 
said names shall be arranged in alphabetical order of the sur- 
names of the parties so qualified as aforesaid, and upon the 
completion of such lists, the same shall be posted up during 
office-hours in some conspicuous place in the offices of the said 



APPENDIX I. 383 

Financial Accountant, and Assistant-Receiver-General, and 
shall moreover be three times published in the Royal Gazette 
of the colony. 

5. And be it further enacted, that it shall and may be 
lawful for the said Financial Accountant, and Assistant- 
Receiver-General, and they are hereby respectively authorised 
and required, to correct and amend such list or register, if it 
should at any time be made to appear to them or either of 
them, that any clerical or other error has by either of them 
been committed therein ; and it shall be further lawful for 
any person or persons claiming a right to vote, whose name 
shall not have been inserted in any such list or registry as 
aforesaid, by the Financial Accountant or Assistant-Receiver- 
General, as the case may be, to prefer in writing a represen- 
tation of any such non-insertion to the Secretary of the Court 
of Policy, which shall by the said Secretary be, as soon as may 
be practicable thereafter, laid before the Honourable the 
Court of Policy, when the Court will make such decision on 
the case, and such order on the said Financial Accountant or 
Assistant-Receiver-General relative thereto, as it may deem 
fit and proper. 

6. And be it further enacted, that for the purposes of any 
election now pending, or in progress, or in which the votes 
may be returnable before the list or registry of votes for the 
year 1837 shall be completed, a list or registry of votes shall 
be framed by the said Financial Accountant, and Assistant 
Receiver- General, from the returns made for colonial taxes 
for the year 1836, and such list or registry shall be trans- 
mitted by the said Financial Accountant, and the said 
Assistant-Receiver-General, to the Secretary of the Court of 
Policy, one week at least before the period of voting at any 
such election shall cease, to be by the said Secretary laid 
before the Honourable the Court of Policy, when the boxes 
containing the votes at any such election shall be opened. 

7. And be it further enacted, that every vote to be given 
at any such election as aforesaid, and every affidavit to be 



384 APPENDIX I. 

made in pursuance of the provisions of this ordinance shall 
be as near as may be respectively according to the forms set 
forth in the Schedules hereunto annexed, under the letters 
A, B, and C. 

And that no ignorance shall be pretended of this our ordi- 
nance, these presents shall be printed and published in the 
customary manner. 

Thus done and enacted at our Ordinary Assembly, held 
at the Guiana Public Buildings, Georgetown, Deme- 
rary, this 2d day of December, 1836, and published the 
3d following. 

(Signed) J. Carmichael Smyth. 
By command of the Court, 

H. E. F. Young, Secretary. 



(A.) 

I, A. B. do swear that C. D. and E. J. are partners of the firm of 

or joint common owners of plantation 

(as the case may be), and that the individual share of direct taxes 

assessed for the year on said firm or plantation, and 

paid or payable by each of said, amounts to/ 70. 

(Signed) A. B. 
Partner in the firm of or joint 

proprietors of plantation or agent of 

proprietor of plantation 
or partner in the firm of 



(B.) 
I vote for A.B. to fill the present vacancy in the College of 
Electors (or College of Financial Representatives, as the case may be). 

(Signed) A. B. 
(or Signed) A. B. 
Attorney, agent, or representative of C. D., 
absent from the colony. 



(C.) 
For a Credible Witness. 
I, A. B. do swear that C. D. E. F., &c. (setting forth the names of 
the parties to whom the affidavit applies) are partners of the firm of 



APPENDIX I. 385 

or joint owners of the plantation 
(as the case may be,) and that the individual 
share of direct taxes assessed on said firm or plantation (as the case 
may be) for the year paid or payable by each of said 

partners or joint owners (as the case may be) amounts to the sum of 
seventy guilders. 



No. II. 



An Ordinance to establish and regulate Vestries in 
the District of Berbice, in the Colony of British 

Guiana. 

By his Excellency Major-General Sir James Carmichael 
Smyth, Bart., Companion of the Most Honourable 
the Military Order of the Bath, Knight Commander of 
the Royal Order of Hanover, Knight of the Austrian 
Imperial Order of Maria Theresa, Knight of the 
Russian Imperial Order of St. Wladimir, Governor and 
Commander-in-Chief in and over the Colony of British 
Guiana, Vice-Admiral and Ordinary of the same 
&c, &c, &c. — By and with the advice and consent 
of the Honourable Court of Policy of the said 
Colony. 
To all to whom these presents do, may, or shall come, greeting ! 

be it known : — 
Whereas by an ordinance of the Governor and Court of 
Policy of British Guiana, passed upon the 7th day of June 
1835, and published on the 9th following, the District of 
Berbice was divided into six separate and distinct parishes ; 
and it is necessary that some efficient means be adopted for 
keeping in repair the churches of the said district now erected, 
or hereafter to be erected, together with any parsonage-house 
or houses to be erected, and for the regulation of all matters 
thereunto appertaining : 

Be it therefore enacted, as it is hereby enacted, by his 
Excellency the Governor, by and with the advice and consent 



386 APPENDIX I. 

of the Honourable the Court of Policy, that on the passing of 
this ordinance, his Excellency and the said Honourable 
Court shall, from out of the resident inhabitants in each and 
every parish in the district of Berbice, nominate and appoint 
a number not exceeding six, nor less than four, who together 
with the minister of the parish shall compose a vestry for the 
purposes aforesaid ; and whenever any vacancy or vacancies 
shall occur among the persons composing the vestry, the same 
shall be rilled up by his Excellency and the said Honourable 
Court. 

And be it further enacted, that the persons to be nominated 
as aforesaid, shall, on the last Friday of every month, or at 
such other times as the minister may appoint, assemble for the 
purpose of regulating such matters as may be brought before 
them ; and the minister of every parish respectively shall and 
he is hereby declared to be president of the vestry, by virtue 
of his office, and any two members of the vestry, together with 
the minister, shall constitute a quorum. 

And be it further enacted, that at the ordinary session of 
the Honourable the Court of Policy to be held in the month 
of January, in each year, the said vestry shall submit a state- 
ment containing the probable amount of the sum or sums of 
money which may by them be wanted for the service of the 
year then ensuing, specifying the purposes for which the same 
is required ; and the Court shall upon such application grant 
or refuse the same, either wholly or in part, as it may see fit ; 
and it shall be in the power of the vestry to regulate and direct 
the expenditure of the money granted. 

And be it enacted, that every person nominated to serve in 
any vestry shall be bound to accept of the said situation, and to 
continue to discharge the duties thereof for three years next 
ensuing his nomination, on pain of forfeiting the sum of 300 
guilders for the benefit of the colony, unless the person nomi- 
nated shall allege a reasonable cause for such refusal ; the 
validity of which shall be decided on by his Excellency the 
Governor, and the Court of Policy, or, during its non-session, 



APPENDIX I. 387 

by his Excellency the Governor alone : Provided always, that 
the penalty herein mentioned shall not extend to any person 
who shall have previously served as a member of the vestry 
for one whole year within the three years immediately pre- 
ceding his nomination. 

And be it enacted, that the vestry shall report from time to 
time to his Excellency the Governor any vacancy or vacancies 
in the vestry, which may from time to time occur, and shall, 
at the expiration of each year, make or cause to be made, 
and delivered to his Excellency and the Honourable the Court 
of Policy, a correct statement of all monies by them received, 
laid out, and expended. 

And that no ignorance shall be pretended of this our ordi- 
nance, these presents shall be printed and published in the 
customary manner. 

Thus done and enacted at our ordinary assembly, held at 
the Guiana Public Buildings, Georgetown, Demerary, 
this 1st of December, 1836, and published on the 3d 
following. 

(Signed) J. Carmichael Smyth. 
By command of the Court, 

H. E. F. Young, Secretary. 



No. III. 



Court of Policy, British Guiana. — Publication. 

The Governor, and the Court of Policy, having in the Ordi- 
nance, No. 70 (intituled " An Ordinance for dividing the 
District of Berbice into Parishes,") reserved to themselves the 
right of hereafter allotting the parishes according to the reli- 
gious tenets of the majority of the inhabitants of each parish ; 
and having duly considered the petitions received from the 
inhabitants of the several parishes as aforesaid, have decided 
and determined as follows : — 

1. The parish of All Saints to be equally under the jurisdic- 

S 2 



388 APPENDIX I. 

tion of the rector of the Church of England, and of the 
minister of the Church of Scotland, in regard to their respec- 
tive congregations. 

2. The parish of St. Patrick is allotted to the Church of 
England. 

3. The parish of St. Michael is allotted to the Church of 
England 

4. The parish of St. Catherine is allotted to the Church of 
Scotland. 

5. The parish of St. Clement is allotted to the Church of 
Scotland. 

6. The parish of St. Saviour is allotted to the Church of 
Scotland. 

Guiana Public Buildings, Georgetown, Demerary, 
this 2d day of December, 1836. 

By command of the Governor and Court of Policy, 

H. E. F. Young, Gov. Sec. 



389 



APPENDIX II. 



Catalogue of Plants, indigenous, naturalized, and 
cultivated, in the British West India Colonies, 
by the late James Dottin Maycock,m.d.,f.l.s., 
a Member of His Majesty's Council in Barbados. 



Trivial Names. 
^Egyptian Bean . 
African Marigold 
African Plum 
Agnus Scythicus 
Alligator Apple . 
Almond Tree . 
Aloes Plant 
American Jasmine 
American Torch 
Annual Sun Flower 
Antigua Balsam 
Arabian Jasmine 
Archangel 
Arnotta 
Arrow Root 
Austrian Rose 
Avigato Pear Tree 
Bachelor's Button 
Bachelor's Pears 
Bachelor's Pears 
Bahama Red Wood 
Balsam, or Sea-side Sage 
Balsam Tree 
Bambu, or Bamboo 



Systematic Names. 

Nelumbium jamaicense. 

Tagetes erecta 

Cordia Myxa. 

Polypodium aureum. 
. Annona palustris. 
. Terminalia Catappa. 

Aloe vulgaris. 
, Ipomcea Quamoclit. 

Cereus monoclonos. 

Helianthus annuus. 
. Justicia pectoralis. 
. Jasminum Sambac. 
. Eupatorium odoratum. 

Bixa Orellana. 
. Maranta arundinacea. 

Rosa bracteata. 
. Persea gratissima. 
. Gomphrsena globosa. 

Solanum mammosum 
. Solanum xanthocarpum. 
. Ceanothus Colubrinus. 
. Croton balsamiferum. 

Clusia flava. 
. Bambusa arundinacea. 



390 



APPENDIX II. 



Trivial Names. 
Banana Tree 
Barbados Cedar 
Barbados Lilac 

Barbados Pride, or Flower 

Fence 
Barbados Trumpet Flower 
Basket Wyth 
Bastard Briony 
Bastard Bully Tree . 
Bastard Feverfew 
Bastard Flower Fence 
Bastard Ipecacuanha . 
Bastard Lignum Vitse 



Systematic Names. 
Musa sapientum. 
. Cedrela odorata. 
Melia Azedarach. 

JPoinciana pulcherrima. 

. Bignonia Unguis. 

Tournefortia bicolor. 
. Cissus sicyoides. 

Bumelia nigra. 
. Parthenium Hysterophorus. 

Adenanthera pavonina. 
. Asclepias curassavica. 

Badiera diversifolia. 



jCalophyllum Calaba. 



Bastard Locust, or Forest Tree Clethra tinifolia. 
Bastard Mammee, 

Maria 

Bastard Ockro . . Malachra capitata. 

Bay-Berry Tree . . Myrica acris. 

Bay-Grape Tree . . Coccoloba uvifera. 

Bean Tree, or Shrove Tuesday Erythrina Corallodendron. 



Bearded-Fig Tree 

Beef-Wood Tree 

Beet 

Bell Pepper 

Bell Pepper 

Belly-Ach 

Bermudas Cedar 

Birch Gum Tree 

Birch, or Turpentine Tree 

Bird Pepper 

Bird Pepper . 

Bitter Wood 

Black Basket Wyth . 

Black Bead Tree . 

Black Berry Hunters . 

Black Cherry 

Black Cherry . 



. Ficus martinicensis. 

Pisonia nigricans. 
. Beta vulgaris. 

Capsicum annuum. 
. Capsicum grossum. 

Jatropha gossypifolia. 
. Juniperus bermudiana. 

Bursera gummifera. 
, Bursera gummifera. 

Capsicum baccatum. 
. Capsicum conoides. 

Quassia excelsa. 
. Rivina octandra. 

Ceanothus colubrinus. 
. Eugenia virgultosa. 

Eugenia ligustrina. 
. Cerasus occidentalis. 



APPENDIX II. 



391 



Trivial Names. 
Black-eyed Peas 
Black Maiden Hair 
Black Nicker . 
Black Sage Bush 
Black Thorn 
Black Willow . 
Black Wood 
Bloodwort 
Blue Eddas 
Blue Shake Shake 
Blue Vine . 
Bois Immortel 
Bombast Mahoe 
Bonnet, or Bonny Pepper 
Bonnet, or Bonny Pepper 
Box Wood 
Branched Calalue 
Bread and Cheese . 
Bread and Cheese, or Sucking" 

Bottle 
Bread Fruit Tree . 
Bread Nut Tree 
Broad-leaved Rose Bay 
Broad-leaved Sour Grass 
Broad Pond Duck-Weed 
Broom Weed . 
Broom Weed 
Broom Weed . 
Brown Jolly, &c. 
Brown Wool Cotton 
Buff- Coat . 
Buff-Coat Tree 
Bully Berry Tree . 
Bully Tree 

Buona Vista. Bonny .vis. 
Buona Vista. Bonny-vis. 
Buona Vista. Bonny-vis. 



Systematic Names. 
Dolichos sphaerospermus. 
Adiantum pumillum. 
Sapindus saponaria. 
Varronia currassavica. 
Pisonia aculeata. 
Capparis torulosa. 
Eugenia triflora. 
Morsea plicata. 
Caladium sagittifolium. 
Crotalaria verrucosa. 
Clitoria ternatea. 

Ochroma Lagopus. 
Capsicum tetragonum. 
Capsicum angulosum. 
Phyllanthus nutans 
Solanum nigrum, 
Inga Unguis Cati. 

•Paullinia Cururu. 

Artocarpus incisa. j3. 
Artocarpus incisa. ot. 
Nerium coronarium. 
Paspalum conjugatum. 
Nelumbium jamaicense. 
Corchorus siliquosus. 
Sida jamaicensis. 
Sida angustifolia. 
Solanum Melongena. 
Gossypium barbadense. 
Waltheria americana. 
Guettarda scabra. 
Bumelia nigra. 
Bumelia nigra. 
Lablab nankinicus. 
Lablab leucocarpus. 
Lablab Perennans. 



392 



APPENDIX II, 



Trivial Names. 
Buona Vista. Bonny-vis. 
Buona Vista. Bonny-vis. 
Buona Vista. Bonny-vis. 
Burgamot tree 
Bur Grass 
Bur Grass . 
Butterfly Oncidium 
Button Sage 
Cabbage . 
Cabbage Tree 

Calaba Tree, or Santa Maria 
Calabash Tree 
Calalue 

Calavances, or Red Bean . 
Candle Wood . 
Canella, or Winter's Bark . 
Cape Jasmine 
Carnation . 
Cashew Tree . 
Cassava 

Cassia Fistula Tree 
Castor-Oil Plant 
Caterpillars 
Caterpillars . 
Cedar . 
Celery 

Cephalic Vine 
Changeable Rose Hibiscus 
Chaw- Stick 

Chequered Grape Tree 
Chereese, or Barbados Cherry 
Cherry Pepper 
Chigery Bush 
Chigery Grape Tree 
China Aster . 
China Orange Tree 
Chinese Rose 



Systematic Names. 
Lablab vulgaris. #. 
Lablab cultratus. 
Lablab vulgaris, y. 
Citrus Limetta. 
Cenchrus echinatus. 
Cenchrus tribuloides. 
Oncidium Papilio. 
Lantana involucrata. 
Brassica oleracea. 
Areca oleracea. 
Calophyllum Calaba. 
Crescentia Cujete. 
Basella cordifolia. 
Dolichos sinensis. 
Chiococca racemosa. 
Canella alba. 
Gardenia fragrans. 
Dianthus Caryophyllus. /S. 
Anacardium occidentale. 
Janipha Manihot. 
Cassia Fistula. 
Ricinus communis. 
Amaranthus viridis. 
Amaranthus polygonoides. 
Cedrela odorata. 
Apium graveolens. 
Convolvulus speciosus. 
Hibiscus mutabilis. 
Gouania domingensis. 
Coccoloba nivea. 
Malpighia punicifolia. 
Capsicum cerasiforme. 
Tournefortia volubilis. 
Coccoloba nivea. 
Aster chinensis. 
Citrus Aurantium. 
Hibiscus mutabilis. 



APPENDIX IT. 



393 



Trivial Names. 
Chinese Cock's Comb 
Chinese Pink 
Chinese Rose Hibiscus 
Choco Vine 
Chocolate-Nut Tree 
Christmas Bush 
Christophine 
Cinnamon Tree 
Circassian Bead Tree 
Citron Tree 
Clay Peas 

Climbing Snowberry Tree 
Clove Pink 
Clove Tree 
Cocco Plum 
Cochineal Shrub 
Cocoa Nut Tree 
Cocoa Plum 
Cocoa Tree . 
Coffee Tree . 
Common Cucumber 
Common Dill . 
Common Everbearing Rose 
Common Fig Tree . 
Common Garlick 
Common Grape 
Common Kidney Bean . 
Common Leek 
Common Pea . 
Common Soap Tree . 
Common Sow Thistle . 
Common Sweet Basil 
Common Vine . 
Common Wormwood . 
Conch- Apple, Conch-Nut 
Coot Weed . 



Systematic Names. 

Celosia coccinea. 
. Dianthus chinensis. 

Hibiscus Rosa sinensis. 
. Sechium edule. 

Theobroma Cacao. 
. Eupatorium odoratum. 

Sechium edule. 
. Laurus Cinnamomum. 

Adenanthera pavonina. 
. Citrus medica. 

Dolichos sinensis. 
. Chiococca racemosa. 

Dianthus caryophyllus. 
. Caryophyllus aromaticus. 

Chrysobalanus Icaco. 
. Opuntia coccinellifera. 

Cocos nucifera. 
. Chrysobalanus Icaco. 

Theobroma Cacao. 
. Coffea arabica. 

Cucumis sativus. 

Anethum graveolens. 

Rosa indica. 

Ficus Carica. 
. Allium sativum. 

Vitis vinifera. a. 
. Phaseolus vulgaris. 

Allium Porrum. 
. Pisum sativum. 

Sapindus saponaria. 
. Sonchus oleraceus. 

Ocymum Basilicum. 
. Vitis Vinifera. 

Artemisia Absinthium. 
. Passiflora maliformis. 
Crotalaria lotifolia. 
s 5 



394 



APPENDIX II. 



Trivial Names. 
Coral, or Red Bean Tree 
Cork Wood . 
Corn Tree 

Cory nth, or Currant Grape 
Cowhage Cherry 
Cow-Itch Vine 

Crab Bush, or Sea-side Laurel 
Crab's-Eye Vine 
Creeping Cowhage 
Creeping-rooted Rhapis, or 

Ground Ratan 
Crested Amaranth, or Cock's 

Comb 
Crimson Everbearing Rose 
Cuckold's Increase 
Cuckold's Increase . 
Custard Apple . 
Damacen, or Callimato tree 
Damask Rose 
Damson Plum 
Dark Chinese Rose 
Dart Wood 
Devil's Grass 
Date Tree 
David's Root 
Dialthsea 
Dog's Grass 
Dog Wood 
Dove Weed 
Down Tree 
Down Vine 

Downy Mountain Ebony 
Dragon's Blood 
Drooping-leav'dAdam'sNeedle 
Dwarf Hibiscus 
Dwarf Maiden Hair 
Dwarf Palm . 



Systematic Names. 
Erythryna Corallodendron. 
Annona palustris. 
Adansonia digitata. 
Vitis vinifera. /5. 
Malpighia urens. 
Mucuna urens. 
Heliotropium gnaphalodes. 
Abrus precatorius. 
Tragia volubilis. 

| Rhapis flabelliformis. 

[Celosia cristata. 

Rosa semperflorens. 
Dolichos unguiculatus. 
Dolichos sesquipedalis. 
Annona reticulata. 
Chrysophyllum glabrum. 
Rosa damascena. 
Chrysophyllum monopyrenum. 
Rosa semperflorens. 
Ixora fasciculata. 
Cynodon dactylon. 
Phcenix dactylifera. 
Chiococca racemosa. 
Waltheria americana. 
Poa ciliaris. 
Gardenia Randia. 
Euphorbia maculata. 
Ochroma Lagopus. 
Sarcostemma Swartzianum. 
Bauhinia tomentosa. 
Dracaena ferrea. 
Yucca Draconis. 
Hibiscus phceniceus. 
Adiantum pumillum. 
Rhapis flabelliformis. 



APPENDIX II. 



395 



Trivial Names. 

Dwarf Pomegranate Tree 

Dwrah, or Araadwrah 

Dumb Cane 

Dunk Tree, or Mangostine 

Dutch Grass 

Dyer's Mulberry, or Fustic 
Wood 

East India Mango Tree 

Eatable Wild Pea . 

Egg Plant 

English Plantain 

English Wormwood 

Ethiopian Sour Gourd, or Mon- 
key's Bread 

Fan Palm 

Fat Pork 

Fennel, or Finkle 

Fern-like Plant 

Fiddle-Wood Tree 

Fingrigo, or Cockspur 

Fingrigo, or Savine Tree 

Fit-Weed 

Fire Burn Bush 

Five Sprig Tree 

Flexuose Snake Cucumber . 

Flower Fence, or Spanish Car- 
nation . 

Forbidden Fruit Tree 

Forest Bark, or Bastard Locust 

French Bean 

French Bean . , 

French Guava 

French Guava . 

French Lavender 

French Marigold 

French Physic-Nut Tree 

French Rose Tree 



Systematic Names. 
Punica nana. 
Cyperus ligularis. 
Caladium seguinum. 
Ziziphus Jujuba. 
Cynosurus indicus. 

IMorus tinctoria. 

Mangifera indica. 
Dolichos luteus. 
Solanum Melongena. 
Plantago media. 
Artemisia Absinthium. 

("Adansonia digitata. 

Thrinax parviflora. 
Chrysobalanus Icaco. 
Anethum Fceniculum. 
Aspidium patens. 
Cytharexylum cinereum. 
Pisonia aculeata. 
Zanthoxylum tragodes. 
Eryngium fcetidum. 
Triopteris jamaicensis. 
Myrodia turbinata. 
Cucumis flexuosus. 

fPoinciana pulcherrima. 

Citrus buxifolia ? 
Clethra tinifolia. 
Phaseolus vulgaris. 
Phaseolus multiflorus. 
Cassia alata. 
Psidium pyriferum. 
Lavandula Stcechas. 
Tagetes patula. 
Jatropha multifida. 
Hibiscus mutabilis. 



396 



APPENDIX.!] 



Trivial Names. 

French Willow 

French Wormwood . 

Fustic Tree 

Galimeta Wood 

Galivaughn Peas . 

Gall Tree 

Garden Balsam 

Garden Balsam 

Garden Basil 

Garden Carrot 

Garden Hydrangea, or Chinese 
Guelder-rose 

Garden Lettuce 

Garden Mangrove ■ 

Garden Marigold 

Garlick Pear Tree 

Germinating-leaf Plant 

Ginger 

Ginger Grass 

Golden Apple 

Golden Orange Tree 

Gooseberry Shrub 

Gourd Vine . 

Granada Yam . 

Granadilla Vine 

Grape-Fruit Tree 

Great Corn, or Indian Maize 

Great Macaw Tree 

Great Water Lily 

Grey Nicker 

Ground Nut 

Guava Tree 

Gully Plum Tree 

Gully-Root . 

Gum Elemi Tree 

Gum Tree 

Gumma Bush 



Systematic Names. 
Cerbera Thevetia. 
Artemisia gallica. 
Morus tinctoria. 
Bumelia salicifolia. 
Dolichos barbadensis. 
Quassia excelsa. 
Balsamina hortensis. 
Justicia pectoralis. 
Ocymum Basilicum. 
Daucus Carota. 

1 Hydrangea hortensis. 

Lactuca sativa. 
Ficus nitida. 
Calendula officinalis. 
Cratseva gynandra. 
Bryophyllum Calycinum. 
Zingiber officinalis. 
Panicum latifolium. 
Spondias dulcis. 
Citrus vulgaris. 
Pereskia aculeata. 
Lagenaria vulgaris. 
Dioscorea bulbifera ? 
Passiflora quadrangularii 
Citrus Hystrix ? 
Zea Mays. 

Acrocomia fusiformis. 
Nelumbium jamaicense. 
Guilandina Bonduc. /3. 
Arachis hypogsea, 
Psidium pomiferum. 
Spondias lutea. 
Petiveria alliacea. 
Amyris toxifera. 
Sapium aucupatorium. 
Solanum nigrum. 



APPENDIX II. 



397 



Trivial Names. 
Guinea Corn 
Guinea Corn 
Guinea Corn 
Guinea Corn 
Guinea Corn 
Hairy Cerasee . 
Halifax Peas 
Hog Plum Tree 
Hog Slip. Hog Vine 
Hog Weed 
Holly-Hock . 

Holly-Hock 

Holy Thorn, or Royal Cashiaw 
Honey-Berry 
Honey- Suckle 
Hoop Wyth . 
Hop Shrub 
Hop "Weed 
Hop Weed 
Horse Bean 
Horse-Eye Bean 
Horse Nicker 
Horse Radish 
Horse Vine 
Jaca Tree . 
Jack Fruit Tree 
Jack-in-a-Box 

Jalap, or Four o'Clock Flower 
Jamaica Birch Tree 
Jamaica Plum Tree . 
Jasmine Tree 
Jerusalem Thorn . 
Indian Cale, or Seven Years' 

Cabbage 
Indian Corn 

Indian Creeper . Indian Pink 
Indian Kale . 



Systematic Names. 
Sorghum vulgaris. 
Sorghum cernuum. 
Sorghum bicolor. 
Sorghum saccharatum. 
Panicum polygamum. 
Momordica Charantia. 
Dolichos sesquipedalis. 
Spondias lutea. 
Convolvulus umbellatus. 
Boerhaavia diffusa. 
Argemone mexicana. 
Althaea rosea. 
Parkinsonia aculeata. 
Melicocca bijuga. 
Passiflora laurifolia. 
Rivina octandra. 
Dodonsea viscosa. 
Bystropogon suaveolens. 
Salvia occidentalis. 
Canavalia ensiformis. 
Mucuna urens. 
Guilandina Bonduc. 8. 
Cochlearia Armoracia. 
Teramnus uncinatus. 
Artocarpus integrifolia. 
Artocarpus integrifolia. 
Hernandia sonora. 
Mirabilis Jalapa. 
Bursera gummifera. 
Spondias purpurea. 
Plumeria rubra. 
Parkinsonia aculeata. 

•Brassica oleracea. y. 

Zea Mays. 
Ipomcea Quamoclit. 
Caladium nymphseifolium. 



398 



APPENDIX II. 



Trivial Names. 
Indian Oak, or Teak Wood 
Indian Root 
Indian Rubber 
Indian Rubber Tree 
Indigo Berry . 
Indigo Weed 
Ink Vine 
Job's Tears 
Irish Potato 
Iron Grass 
Iron Wood 
Iron Vine 
Italian Senna 
Junction Vine 
King of Flowers 
Lady of the Night 
Large Duck Weed 
Large Lime Tree 
Large Wild Barren Pine 
Largest Sensitive Plant 
Least Wild Pea Vine 
Leather Coat Tree 
Lemon Grass 
Lesser Shaddock Tree 
Lignum Vitse 
Lily 

Lily .... 
Lily .... 
Lime Tree 
Lima Bean 
Limonia 

Loblolly Tree . 
Locust Berry Tree 
Locust Tree 
Loggerhead Weed . 
Logwood . 
Long-leaved Mistleto . 



Systematic Names. 

Tectona grandis. 

Asclepias curassavica. 
. Ficus elastica. 

Euphorbia atropurpurea. 
. Gardenia Randia. 

Indigofera Anil. 
. Passiflora suberosa. 

Coix Lacryma. 
. Solanum tuberosum. 

Spermacoce tenuior. 
. Siderodendrum triflorum. 

Desmodium spirale. 
. Cassia obtusifolia. 

Aristolochia odoratissima. 
. Lagerstrcemia indica. 

Cestrum nocturnum. 
. Nymphaea odorata. 

Citrus medica. /3. 
. Bromelia Penguin. 

Desmanthus virgatus. 
. Rynchosia minima. 

Coccoloba pubescens. 
. Cymbopogon Schoenanthus. 

Citrus Decumana. 
. Guaiacum officinale. 

Amaryllis equestris. 
. Pancratium fragrans. 

Epidendrum ciliare. 
. Citrus Limonum. 

Phaseolus perennis. 
. Triphasia trifoliata. 

Varronia alba. 
. Byrsonima coriacea. 

Hymensea Courbaril. 
. Spigelia Anthelmia. 

Hsematoxylon campechianum. 
. Pothos lanceolata. 



APPENDIX II. 



399 



Trivial Names. 
Long Pepper 
Love-in-a-Mist . 
Macartney Rose ... 
Madagascar Periwinkle 
Macaw Tree . . . 

Mahogany Tree . 
Maiden Hair .... 
Malabar Nut 
Mammee Sapota . 
Mammee Tree . 
Manchineel Tree . 
Mangel-Wurzel . 
Mango Tree .... 
Mangostan, or Mangosteen 
Many Roots .... 
Many Seed 
Marvel of Peru 
Mastick Tree 

May Grass .... 
May Pole .... 

Melon 

Menow Weed 

Milk Weed . 

Milk Weed 

Milk Weed 

Mistleto . 

Mignonette 

Moabite alias Mangrove Bead 

Tree 

Monkey Apple Tree . 
Monkey's Bread 
Monkey's Hand 
Monkey's Peas . 
Montabba alias Trubba . 
Morass Weed 
Mountain Fern 
Musk Bush, or Wild Ockro 



Systematic Names. 
Capsicum longum. 
Passiflora foetida. 
Rosa bracteata. 
Vinca rosea. 
Acroeomia fusiformis. 
Swietenia Mahogani. 
Acrostichum Calomelanos. 
Justicia Adhatoda. 
Achras mammosa. 
Mammea americana. 
Hippomane Mancinella. 
Beta vulgaris. $. 
Mangifera indica. 
Garcinia Mangostana. 
Ruellia tuberosa. 
Jussisea octonervia. 
Mirabilis Jalapa. 
Sideroxylon Mastichodendron. 
Panicum latifolium. 
Agave americana. 
Cucumis Melo. 
Ruellia tuberosa. 
Euphorbia obliterata. 
Euphorbia glabrata. 
Euphorbia pilulifera. 
Viscum verticillatum. 
Reseda odorata. 

flnga Unguis Cati. 

Anona palustris. 
Adansonia digitata. 
Piper peltatum. 
Dolichos luteus. 
Solanum Melongena. 
Ceratophyllum demersum. 
Cyathsea arborea. 
Hibiscus Abelmoschus. 



400 



APPENDIX II. 



Trivial Names. 
Musk Melon .... 
Musk Ockro 
Musk Rose 
Muskito Bush 
Myrtle Lime 

Narrow-leaved Sour Grass 
Negro-Oil Bush 
Negro-Oil Bush 
Negro Pepper 

Nem Nem, or Toothach Tree 
Nettles 
Nettles 

Nettle Hibiscus 
Nettle Sida . 

Nigh t-blo win g Convolvulus . 
Night Shade . 
Noyeau Vine 
Nut Eddoe. Taniers 
Nut Grass 
Nutmeg Tree 
Ockra. Ockro . 
Oil-Nut Tree 

Old Maid, or Cayenne Jasmine 
Old Woman's Bitter . 
Oleander, or Sweet-scented i 
Rose Bay . . - 

Olive Mangrove 
Olive Pepper 
Otaheite Apple 
Otaheite Gooseberry . 
Ox-Eye Bean 
Pagister Grass 
Palm-Oil Tree 
Parsley 

Pawpaw Ockroe 
Pawpaw Tree 
Pen-Gwyn 



Systematic Names. 
Cucumis Melo. 
Hibiscus Abelmoschus. 
Rosa moschata. 
Bystropogon suaveolens. 
Triphasia trifoliata. 
Andropogon angustifolius. 
Ricinus communis. 
Ricinus viridis. 
Capsicum conoides. 
Acacia horrida. 
Urtica sestuans. 
Urtica grandifolia. 
Hibiscus pruriens. 
Sida urens. 
Ipomcea bona-nox. 
Datura Stramonium. 
Convolvulus dissectus. 
Caladium sagittifolium. 
Cyperus esculentus. 
Myristica moschata. 
Hibiscus esculentus. 
Ricinus communis. 
Vinca rosea. 
Citharexylum cinereum. 

Nerium odorum. 

Avicennia tomentosa. 
Capsicum cerasiforme. 
Spondias dulcis. 
Cicca disticha. 
Mucuna urens. 
Oplismenus hirtellus. 
Elais guineensis. 
Apium Petroselinon. 
Corchorus sestuans. 
Carica Papaya. 
Bromelia Karatas. 



APPEXDIX II. 



401 



Trivial Names. 
Pepper-Mint 
Pennyroyal 
Peruvian Cotton 
Peruvian Marigold 
Physic Nut Tree . 
Pie-Crust 
Pigeon Pea Tree 
Pimento, Jamaica Pepper, or' 

Allspice . . . - 

Pimploes 

Pindals, or Ground Nuts 
Pine- Apple 
Pinguin 
Plantain Tree 
Poison Tree 
Poison Wyth , 
Pollard, or White Wool Cotton 
Pomegranate Tree 
Pond Grass, or Canker Weed 
Pond Grass, or Canker Weed 
Pond Weed 
Pond Weed 
Poplar, or Poppy Tree 
Pops .... 

Pop Vine 
Potatoes 

Poverty Weed . 
Prickle Yellow Wood 
Prickly Argemone, or Poppy 
Prickly Pear Vine 
Prickly Yam Vine 
Prickly Yellow Wood, or Yel-1 

low Hercules . . i 

Pumkins 

Pumpion, or Pamkin Gourd 
Pumple Nose Tree 
Purple Cocco, and Taniers 



Systematic Names. 
Mentha piperita. 
Mentha Pulegium. 
Gossypium peruvianum. 
Tagetes tenuifolia. 
Jatropha Curcas. 
Jacquinia armillaris. 
Cajanus flavus. 

Eugenia Pimenta. 

Opuntia Tuna. 
Arachis hypogsea. 
Bromelia Ananas. 
Bromelia Penguin. 
Musa paradisiaca. 
Sapium aucupatorium, 
Cissus sicyoides. 
Gossypium herbaceum. 
Punica Granatum. 
Commelina communis. 
Commelina erecta. 
Croton palustre. 
Alisma cordifolia. 
Thespesia populnea. 
Physalis angulata. 
Physalis barbadensis. 
Convolvulus Batatas. 
Desmodium repens. 
Zanthoxylum Clava Herculis. 
Argemone mexicana. 
Cereus trigonus. 
Dioscorea aculeata. 

Zanthoxylum Clava Herculis. 

Cucurbita Pepo. 
Cucurbita Pepo. 
Citrus Decumana ? 
Caladium sagittifolium, 



402 



APPENDIX II. 



Trivial Names. 
Purple Eye Bright . 
Purple Inga, or Soldier Wood 
Purslane .... 
Queen of Flowers . 
Rabbit Vine 
Rabbit Weed 
Rata Pepper. Rata Ockro alias, 

Hoho 
Rattle Bush, or Shake Shake 
Red Cherry Tree . 
Red Dialthsea . 
Red Flag or Plush Grass 
Red Mangrove Tree 
Red Wood 
Red Yam 

Reed .... 

Reed .... 
Rice Grass 
Right Wyth, or Cat's Claw 

Wyth .... 
Ring Worm Bush 
Roasting Cassava 
Roasting Eddoes . 
Rocambole 
Rock Balsam 
Rock Balsam 
Rock Bush 
Rock Sage 
Rod Wood . 
Rod Wood 
Rope Mangrove 
Rose of Sharon 
Raucou 

Rouncival Peas 
Rush 
Rush 
St. Helena Lemon Tree 



Systematic Names. 
Spermacoce hirta. 
Inga purpurea. 
Portulaca oleracea. 
Lagerstraemia Regina. 
Teramnus uncinatus. 
Sonchus agrestis. 

' Corchorus hirtus. 

Crotalaria incana. 
Malpighia glabra. 
Reidleia nodiflora. 
Andropogon angustifolius. 
Rhizophora Mangle. 
Coccoloba barbadensis. 
Dioscorea alata. 
Panicum arundinaceum. 
Donax arundinaceus. 
Panicum molle. 

► Bignonia Unguis. 

Cassia alata. 
Janipha Loflingii. 
Caladium Macrorhizon. 
Allium Scorodoprasum. 
Piper obtusifolium. 
Piper acuminatum. 
Piper aduncum. 
Lantana involucrata. 
Coccoloba barbadensis. 
Eugenia virgultosa. 
Hibiscus arboreus. 
Hibiscus Rosa-sinensis. 
Bixa Orellana. 
Vigna glabra. 
Scirpus mutatus. 
Scirpus geniculatus. 
Citrus medica. 



APPENDIX II. 



403 



Trivial Names 
St. John's Bush 
St. Vincent Lilac 
Sambo 

Sandbox Tree 
Santa Maria Leaf 
Sappadilla Tree . 
Savanna Grass 



Systematic Names. 

Psychotria nervosa. 
. Solanum Seaforthianum. 

Gynandropsis pentaphvlla. 
. Hura crepitans. 

Piper umbellatum. 
. Achras sapota. 

Paspalum distichum. 



Scarlet Runner Kidney Bean Phaseolus multiflorus. 

Saven Tree, or Bastard Iron\„ . . _ 

jZantnoxylum Pterota. 



Wood 
Scallion . 
Scotch Grass 
Scotch Grass 
Scratch Cocco 
Scratch Wyth 
Scratching Eddas 
Screw-Pine 
Sea Island Cotton 
Seaside Balsam 
Seaside Grape 
Seaside Lavender . 
Seaside Laurel . 
Seaside Laurel . 
Seaside Milk Weed 
Seaside Samphire 
Seaside Vine 
Senna Tree . 
Sensitive Plant . 
Seville Orange Tree 
Shaddock Tree 
Shallot 
Short Grass 



Allium Ascalonicum. 
. Panicum pilosum. 

Oplismenus hirtellus. 
Eddyes . Arum esculentum. 

Cissus sicyoides. 
. Arum esculentum. 

Pandanus odoratissimus. 

Gossypium hirsutum. 
. Croton balsaraiferum. 

Coccoloba uvifera. 
. Heliotropium gnaphalodes. 

Xylophylla falcata. 
. Heliotropium gnaphalodes. 

Euphorbia glabrata. 
. Sesuvium Portulacastrum. 

Convolvulus brasiliensis. 
. Cassia emarginata. 

Mimosa pudica. 
. Citrus vulgaris. 

Citrus Decumana. 
. Allium Ascalonicum. 

Panicum distachyon. 



Sh Weed G0atWeed *° r Swee HCapraria biflora. 



Siberian Motherwort . 
Silk Cotton Tree . 
Silk Grass 



Leonurus sibiricus. 
Bombax Ceiba. 
Agave americana. 



404 



APPENDIX II. 



Trivial Names. 
Silk Grass . 
Silver-leaved Plant . 
Silver Wood 
Silver Vine . 
Small Cotton Tree 
Small Cotton Tree . 
Small Cotton Tree 
Small Barren Pine . 
Small Duck Weed 
Small-grained Black Pepper 
Small Red Thrubba 
Small Pomegranate Tree . 
Small Wild Cucumber 
Smallish Cloven-Berry Bush 
Smaller Indian Kale . 
Smooth and Prickly Lawsonia 
Smooth Primrose Willow 
Snake Gourd 
Snake Wood 
Soap-Tree, or Soap-Berry 
Sorrel . 

Sour Orange Tree 
Soursop Tree . 
South Sea Rose 
Spanish Ash 
Spanish Lemon Tree 
Spanish Needle . 
Spanish Needles 
Spanish Oak 
Spear-Mint 
Spirit Weed 
Spirit Weed 
Spikenard 
Spur Pepper 
Squashes 
Stinking Weed 
Star Apple 



Systematic Names. 
Agave vivipara. 
Tussilago nutans. 
Koelera serrata. 
Hedysarum volubile. 
Gossypium barbadense. 
Gossypium herbaceum. 
Gossypium vitifolium. 
Bromelia paniculegera. 
Ceratophyllum demersum. 
Piper Amalago. 
Solanum torvum. 
Punica nana. 
Melothria pendula. 
Casearia parviflora. 
Arum divaricatum. 
Lawsonia alba. 
Jussiaea octonervia. 
Trichosanthes anguina. 
Cecropia peltata. 
Sapindus saponaria. 
Hibiscus Sabdariffa. 
Citrus vulgaris. 
Annona muricata. 
Nerium odorum. 
Lonchocarpus violaceus. 
Citrus medica. 
Bidens leucantha. 
Yucca Draconis. 
Inga Bourgoni. 
Mentha viridis. 
yEgiphila martinicensis. 
iEgiphila elata. 
Bystropogon suaveolens. 
Capsicum frutescens. 
Cucurbita Melopepo. 
Cassia occidentalis. 
Chrysophyllum Cainito. 



APPENDIX II. 



405 



Trivial Names, 
Star Grass 
Star Plum 
Stopper Berry Tree 
Strawberry Pear 
Sugar Apple Tree 
Sugar Bean 
Sugar Cane 
Supple Jack 
Supple Jack 
Sweet Brier 
Sweet Brier Rose 
Sweet Cassava 
Sweet Gourd 
Sweet Heart 
Sweet Marjoram 
Sweet Lime 
Sweet Lime 
Sweet Pea 

Sweet-scented Birthwort 
Sweet-scented China Rose . 
Sweet-scented Flea Bane 
Sweet-scented Hemp Agri- 1 

mony . . \ 

Sweet-scented Water Lily 
Sweet Sop, or Sugar Apple , 

Tree . . . 

Sweet Wood Tree 
Sweet Wood Tree 
Tamarind Tree 
Tammatas 

Teak Wood, or Indian Oak 
Thistle, or Rabbit Weed 
Timber Sweet Wood 
Tithymaloides 
Top-Knot Plum 
Trinidad Butterfly Plant 
Trumpet Tree, or Snake Wood 



Systematic Names. 
Schcenus stellatus. 
Chrysophyllum monopyrenum 
Cerasus sphgerocarpa. 
Cereus trigonus. 
Annona squamosa. 
Phaseolus lunatus. 
Saccharum ofncinarum. 
Paullinia Cururu. 
Paullinia barbadensis. 
Acacia tortuosa. 
Rosa rubiginosa. 
Janipha Lbflingii. 
Trichosanthes anguina. 
Desmodium supinum. 
Origanum Majorana 
Triphasia trifoliata. 
Citrus Limetta. 
Lathyrus odoratus. 
Aristolochia odoratissima 
Rosa chinensis. 
Baccharis odorata. 

[Eupatorium odoratum. 

Nymphsea odorata. 

I Annona squamosa. 

Laurus caroliniensis 
Laurus parviflora. 
Tamarindus indica. 
Solanum Lycopersicon. 
Tectona grandis. 
Sonchus oleraceus. 
Laurus caroliniensis. 
Euphorbia Tithymaloides. 
Spondias purpurea. 
Oncidium Papilio. 
Cecropia peltata. 



406 



APPENDIX II. 



Trivial Names. 
Tuberose 
Turmerick 
Turkey Berry Tree 
Turk's Head 
Turnip 

Vine Nettle . 
Virginian Pepper Wort 
Upright Pink 
Water Cress 
Water Lemon 
Water Lemon 
Water Sweet Weed . 
Water Weed 
West India Tea 
Welch Golden Rod 
White Bully Tree 
White Cedar Tree . 
White Cocco, or Tyre 
White-flowered Jasmine Tree 
White Hercules 
White Hoop 
White Sage 
White Willow 
White Wood Tree 
Wild Basil . 

Wild or Bastard Ipecacuanha 
Wild or Bastard French Guava 
Wild Bay Berry Tree 
Wild Cane . . . . 
Wild Calabash 
Wild Cassava 
Wild Cinnamon 
Wild Clary . . . . 
Wild Clary 

Wild Clove, Bay-Berry Myrtle 
Wild Coffee . 
Wild Coffee ... 



Systematic Names. 
Polyanthes tuberosa. 
Curcuma longa. 
Cordia Collococca. 
Melocactus communis. 
Brassica Rapa. 
Tragia volubilis. 
Lepidium virginicum. 
Dianthus virgineus. 
Nasturtium officinale. 
Passiflora laurifolia. 
Passiflora maliformis. 
Laurus parviflora. 
Spigelia Anthelmia. 
Capraria biflora. 
Solidago cambrica. 
Bumelia salicifolia. 
Bignonia Leucoxylon. 
Caladium Macrorhizon. 
Plumeria alba. 
Zanthoxylum fraxineum. 
Tournefortia bicolor. 
Lantana involucrata 
Capparis Breynia. 
Bignonia Leucoxylon. 
Ocymum americanum. 
Asclepias curassavica. 
Cassia alata. 
Eugenia coriacea. 
Erianthus arundinaceus. 
Cestrum laurifolium. 
Jatropha Gossypifolia. 
Canella alba. 
Heliotropium indicum. 
Heliotropium parviflorum. 
Myrica acris. 
Coffea occidentalis. 
Pavetta pentandra. 



APPENDIX II. 



407 



Trivial Names. 
Wild Coffee . 
Wild Dolly 
Wild Dwrah 
Wild Elder Bush 
Wild French Guava 
Wild Hemp 
Wild Hemp . 
Wild Hiccory 
Wild Honey Tree 
Wild Hops 
Wild Indigo 
Wild Lavender 
Wild Lily 
Wild Liquorice 
Wild, or Monkey Eddoe 
Wild Ockro 
Wild Olive 
Wild Parsley . 
Wild Pepper Grass 
Wild Pines 
Wild Pomegranate 
Wild Purslane 
Wild Purslane 
Wild Sage 



Systematic Names. 
. Psychotria tenuifolia. 

Phaseolus semierectus. 
. Cyperus strigosus. 

Piper umbellatum. 
. Cassia occidentalis. 

Malachra capitata. 
. Malachra fasciata. 

Rivina octandra. 
. Casearia parviflora; 

Hyptis capitata. 
. Indigofera Anil. 

Heliotropium curassavicum. 
. Epidendrum ciliare. 

Abrus precatorius. 
. Caladium nymphseifolium. 

Malachra capitata. 
. Bontia daphnoides. 

Cardiospermum Helicacabum, 
• Lepidium virginicum. 

Yucca Draconis. 
. Volkameria aculeata. 

Portulaca parvifolia. 
. Portulaca pilosa. 

Lantana involucrata. 



W F?stula na ' ^ Wlld CaSSla i CaSsia emar S inata - 

Wild Shaddock 

Wild Spikenard 

Wild Slip 

Wild Tamarinds . 

Wild Tobacco . 

Wild Tulip 

Wild Water Lemon Vine 

Wild Wormwood * . 



Citrus medica. 
. Bystropogon pectinatum. 

Convolvulus hederaceus. 
. Cassia Chamsecrista. 

Baccharis odorata. 

Amaryllis zeylanica. 
. Passiflora fcetida. 
. Parthenium Hysterophorus. 



Wmged-Seeded Horse Radish | Moringa pteryg0 sperma. 
Woolly-Pyroe . . . Phaseolus Mungo. 



408 



APPENDIX II. 



Trivial Names. 
Worm Seed Weed 
Yams 

Yellow Hercules 
Yellow Hercules . 
Yellow, or Jamaica Plum 
Yellow Lupin 
Yellow Nicker . 
Yellow Thistle 



Systematic Names. 

Chenopodium anthelminticum 
. Dioscorea sativa. 

Zanthoxylum Ochroxylum. 
. Zanthoxylum Clava Herculis. 

Spondias lutea. 
. Crotolaria retusa. 

Guilandina Bonduc. a. 
. Argemone mexicana. 



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